Page:How and Why Library 024.jpg

 Hans wore wide knickerbockers, a tight jacket and a little round cap. Gretel wore six bright wool petticoats, all at once. Her close, gold-braided cap had big rosettes over the ears. They skated on the canals in winter. They went to a big city called Am-ster-dam, in an ice-boat, with a sail. The wind sent the boat flying over the ice.

Hans and Gretel came to America with other Dutch children. They lived on a long, narrow island in the mouth of the Hudson River. The island poked its blunt nose into the ocean, so ships could come up to it. It was higher than the water, so the Dutch did not have to build dykes. But they built a wall of stakes across the island to keep the Indians out. They built a windmill too. If there had not been lots of water the Dutch children would have been as lonesome in America as ducks in a meadow. The Dutch men were merchants. They bought furs of the Indians and sent them to Holland to be sold. When the ships came for furs they brought loads of bricks to build houses. A street of neat brick houses was built like the letter U around the blunt nose of the island. The fronts faced a green park; the gardens all ran down to the water. The Dutch called this town New Am-ster-dam. After many years English people came to live with the Dutch, and they named the town New York. Today nearly four million people live in New York. It is one of the biggest cities in the world.

The great-grand-children of Hans and Gretel had two homes. One was a brown stone house in the city. The other was far up on the high, rocky bank of the Hudson River. It had a porch with white pillars, and forests and meadows were around it. They had a gay coach and fast horses to drive into the city, and they had a sail boat on the river. They spoke English instead of Dutch, and they wore leather shoes with buckles. They were Americans. They never dreamed of such a thing as going back to Holland. See, page 1334.