d that has
been built long enough for such immense trees to have had time to grow.

The carriage road lay along the top of the dike, which was very broad,
and the slopes of it, towards the water on one side, and towards the low
meadow lands on the other, were very gradual. Men were at work every
where along these slopes, cutting the second crop of grass, and making
it into hay. Where the hay was ready to be got in, the men were at work
loading it into boats that lay in the little canals that extend along
the sides of the dike at the foot of the slopes.

Wind mills were to be seen every where, all about the horizon. As the
road approached Saandam, these mills became more and more numerous.

"I mean to see if I can count them," said Rollo.

"You cannot count them, I am sure," said Mr. George.

Rollo began; but when he got up to a hundred, he gave up the undertaking
in despair. Mr. George told him that he read in the guide book that
there were four thousand wind mills in that region.

Some of these wind mills were very small indeed; and there were two or
three which looked so "cunning," as Rollo said, that he wished very much
that he had one of them to take with him to America.

The use of these very small wind mills was to pump up the water from
some very limited tract of land, which, for some reason or other,
happened to lie a few inches lower than the rest.

At last, after an infinite number of turnings and windings, by means of
which every part of the surrounding country was brought in succession
into view before Mr. George and Rollo as they sat in their carriage,
they arrived at the town of Saandam.

The town consists of two streets, one on each embankment of a great
canal. The streets are closely built up for many miles along the canal,
but the town does not extend laterally at all, on account of the ground
falling off immediately to very low polders.

[Illustration: CABIN OF PETER THE GREAT.]

After entering the street the commissioner left the carriage, in order
that the horses might rest, and led Mr. George and Rollo on a walk
through the prettiest part of the town. They walked about half a mile
along the canal on one side, and then, crossing by a ferry, they came
back on the other side.

In the course of this walk they went to see the hut where Peter the
Great lived while he was in Holland engaged in studying ship building in
the ship yards of Saandam. The hut itself was old and dilapidated; but
it