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 ducks? On that point they are silent.

If the scene is a peaceful one, some of its prominent landmarks—the huge windmills, standing out against the sky—are seldom at rest; but on such rare occasions they present the appearance of great cobwebs hanging from the clouds. They are more often at work, and, as they revolve slowly against the line of the horizon, they are plodding along industriously, extracting oil from seeds, thrashing hemp, sawing wood, pulverizing gravel, and last, but not least, doing their utmost to prevent the polders (lands rescued from the water's sway, and devoted to agricultural production) from being inundated. They are unceasingly engaged in carrying water from the smaller canals to the larger ones, communicating by the same means with canals higher up, which in their turn carry the water to the sea.