Page:Augusta Seaman--Jacqueline of the carrier pigeons.djvu/32

10 happen next in these days. We must wait, Gysbert."

“Come, come! let us be going,” said her brother restlessly, “and see if they all get  back safely, and whether ‘William of Orange’  was first.”

“No, let us stay awhile,” replied Jacqueline. “It is pleasant and cool up here, and the afternoon is long. Vrouw Voorhaas will let the birds in, and tell us all about when  they arrived. We may as well enjoy the day.”

She reseated herself and gazed off toward the blue line of the ocean, shut out from the  land by a series of dykes whose erection represented years of almost incredible labor. The river Rhine making its way sluggishly to the sea,—a very different Rhine from that  of its earlier course through Germany,—was  almost choked off by the huge sand dunes  through which it forced its discouraged path. The girl’s thoughtful mood was infectious, and Gysbert, after rambling about idly for