Page:Boys Life of Booker T. Washington.djvu/138

122 he had a glorious voyage. But he did not know how tired and worn out he was until he relaxed. About the second day he began to sleep, and he says that from then on until they landed he slept at least fifteen hours every day. He continued the habit of long hours devoted to sleep all the time he was gone, and it was one of the means by which he restored his depleted strength.

After a fine voyage of ten days, they landed at Antwerp, a famous old city of Belgium. Here they spent a few quiet days, finding it extremely interesting to observe the people with their dress and manners and customs, different from anything they had ever seen before.

Then they went on a delightful journey through the picturesque country of Holland. Washington, always interested in farming and especially dairy farming, was greatly delighted on this trip. On every hand were the wonderful farms of the Dutch. He had never seen such intensive cultivation of land. Every foot of ground was used. Vegetables were grown in boxes, one row above another, on the back porches of the houses, so precious was the scarce land. Ten or twelve acres was a good big farm. Coming from a country where land is so abundant and cheap and so extravagantly wasted and so carelessly cultivated, these beautiful farms were a delight to him. And the herds of fine Holstein cattle pleased him