English. Master Dobbs felt at first decidedly awkward
among his cousin's friends. Though most of them had studied English and
French, they were shy about attempting to speak either, and he made very
funny blunders when he tried to converse in Dutch. He had learned that
vrouw meant wife; and ja, yes; and spoorweg, railway; kanaals, canals;
stoomboot, steamboat; ophaalbruggen, drawbridges; buiten plasten,
country seats; mynheer, mister; tweegevegt, duel or "two fights"; koper,
copper; zadel, saddle; but he could not make a sentence out of
these, nor use the long list of phrases he had learned in his "Dutch
dialogues." The topics of the latter were fine, but were never alluded
to by the boys. Like the poor fellow who had learned in Ollendorf to ask
in faultless German, "Have you seen my grandmother's red cow?" and, when
he reached Germany, discovered that he had no occasion to inquire after
that interesting animal, Ben found that his book-Dutch did not avail him
as much as he had hoped. He acquired a hearty contempt for Jan van Gorp,
a Hollander who wrote a book in Latin to prove that Adam and Eve spoke
Dutch, and he smiled a knowing smile when his uncle Poot assured him
that Dutch "had great likeness mit Zinglish but it vash much petter
languish, much petter."

However, the fun of skating glides over all barriers of speech. Through
this, Ben soon felt that he knew the boys well, and when Jacob (with
a sprinkling of French and English for Ben's benefit) told of a grand
project they had planned, his cousin could now and then put in a ja, or
a nod, in quite a familiar way.

The project WAS a grand one, and there was to be a fine opportunity for
carrying it out; for, besides the allotted holiday of the Festival
of Saint Nicholas, four extra days were to be allowed for a general
cleaning of the schoolhouse.

Jacob and Ben had obtained permission to go on a long skating
journey--no less a one than from Broek to The Hague, the capital of
Holland, a distance of nearly fifty miles! *{Throughout this narrative
distances are given according to our standard, the English statute mile
of 5,280 feet. The Dutch mile is more than four times as long as ours.}

"And now, boys," added Jacob, when he had told the plan, "who will go
with us?"

"I will! I will!" cried the boys eagerly.

"And so will I," ventured little Voostenwalbert.

"Ha! ha!" laughed Jacob, holding his fat sides and shaking his puffy
cheeks. "YOU go? Such a little f