So! so! exclaimed Peter with a radiant smile, for Hilda was his best friend. She has been at her good work there too! And Mynheer van Holp, after cutting a double figure eight on the ice, to say nothing of a huge P, then a jump and an H, glided onward until he found himself beside Hilda.
Hand in hand, they skated together, laughingly at first, then staidly talking in a low tone.
Strange to say, Peter van Holp soon arrived at a sudden conviction that his little sister needed a wooden chain just like Hildas.
Two days afterwards, on Saint Nicholass Eve, Hans, having burned three candle ends and cut his thumb into the bargain[49], stood in the marketplace at Amsterdam, buying another pair of skates.
Shadows in the Home
Good Dame Brinker! As soon as the scanty dinner had been cleared away that noon, she had arrayed herself in her holiday attire in honor of Saint Nicholas. It will brighten the children, she thought to herself, and she was not mistaken. This festival dress had been worn very seldom during the past ten years; before that time it had done good service and had flourished at many a dance and kermis, when she was known, far and wide, as the pretty Meitje Klenck. The children had sometimes been granted rare glimpses of it as it lay in state in the old oaken chest. Faded and threadbare as it was, it was gorgeous in their eyes, with its white linen tucker, now gathered to her plump throat and vanishing beneath the trim bodice of blue homespun, and its reddish-brown skirt bordered with black. The knitted woolen mitts and the dainty cap showing her hair, which generally was hidden, made her seem almost like a princess to Gretel, while Master Hans grew staid and well-behaved as he gazed.
Soon the little maid, while braiding her own golden tresses, fairly danced around her mother in an ecstasy of admiration.
Oh, Mother, Mother, Mother, how pretty you are! Look, Hans! Isnt it just like a picture?
Just like a picture, assented Hans cheerfully. JUST like a picture only I dont like those stocking things on the hands.
Not like the mitts, brother Hans! Why, theyre very important. See, they cover up all the red[50]. Oh, Mother, how white your arm is where the mitt leaves off, whiter than mine, oh, ever so much whiter. I declare, Mother, the bodice is tight for you. Youre growing! Youre surely growing!
Dame Brinker laughed.
This was made long ago, lovey, when I wasnt much thicker about the waist than a churn dasher. And how do you like the cap? she asked, turning her head from side to side.
Oh, EVER so much, Mother. Its b-e-a-u-tiful! See, the father is looking!
Was the father looking? Alas! only with a dull stare. His vrouw[51] turned toward him with a start, something like a blush rising to her cheeks, a questioning sparkle in her eye. The bright look died away in an instant.
No, no. She sighed. He sees nothing. Come, Hans and the smile crept faintly back again dont stand gaping at me all day, and the new skates waiting for you at Amsterdam.
Ah, Mother, he answered, you need so many things. Why should I buy skates?
Nonsense, child. The money was given to you on purpose, or the work was its all the same thing. Go while the sun is high.
Yes, and hurry back, Hans! laughed Gretel. Well race on the canal tonight, if the mother lets us.
At the very threshold he turned to say, Your spinning wheel wants a new treadle, Mother.
You can make it[52], Hans.
So I can. That will take no money. But you need feathers and wool and meal, and
There, there! That will do. Your silver cannot buy everything. Ah! Hans, if our stolen money would but come back on this bright Saint Nicholass Eve, how glad we would be! Only last night I prayed to the good saint
Mother! interrupted Hans in dismay.
Why not, Hans? Shame on you to reproach me for that! Im as true a Protestant, in sooth, as any fine lady that walks into church, but its no wrong to turn sometimes to the good Saint Nicholas. Tut! Its a likely story if one cant do that, without ones children flaring up at it and he the boys and girls own saint. Hoot! Mayhap the colt is a steadier horse than the mare[53]?
Hans knew his mother too well to offer a word in opposition when her voice quickened and sharpened as it did now (it was often sharp and quick when she spoke of the missing money), so he said gently, And what did you ask of good Saint Nicholas, Mother?
Why, never to give the thieves a wink of sleep till they brought it back, to be sure, if he has the power to do such things, or else to brighten our wits that we might find it ourselves. Not a sight have I had of it since the day before the dear father was hurt as you well know, Hans.
That I do, Mother, he answered sadly, though you have almost pulled down the cottage in searching.
Aye, but it was of no use, moaned the dame. Hiders make best finders.[54]
Hans started. Do you think the father could tell aught?
Aye, indeed, said Dame Brinker, nodding her head. I think so, but that is no sign. I never hold the same belief in the matter two days. Mayhap the father paid it off for the great silver watch we have been guarding since that day. But, no Ill never believe it.
The watch was not worth a quarter of the money, Mother.
No, indeed, and your father was a shrewd man up to the last moment. He was too steady and thrifty for silly doings.
Where did the watch come from, I wonder, muttered Hans, half to himself.
Dame Brinker shook her head and looked sadly toward her husband, who sat staring blankly at the floor. Gretel stood near him, knitting.
That we shall never know, Hans. I have shown it to the father many a time, but he does not know it from a potato[55]. When he came in that dreadful night to supper, he handed the watch to me and told me to take good care of it until he asked for it again. Just as he opened his lips to say more, Broom Klatterboost came flying in with word that the dike was in danger. Ah! The waters were terrible that Pinxter-week[56]! My man, alack, caught up his tools and ran out. That was the last I ever saw of him in his right mind. He was brought in again by midnight, nearly dead, with his poor head all bruised and cut. The fever passed off in time, but never the dullness THAT grew worse every day. We shall never know.
Hans had heard all this before. More than once he had seen his mother, in hours of sore need, take the watch from its hiding place, half resolved to sell it, but she had always conquered the temptation.
No, Hans, she would say, we must be nearer starvation than this before we turn faithless to the father!
A memory of some such scene crossed her sons mind now, for, after giving a heavy sigh, and flipping a crumb of wax at Gretel across the table, he said, Aye, Mother, you have done bravely to keep it many a one would have tossed it off for gold long ago.
And more shame for them! exclaimed the dame indignantly. I would not do it. Besides, the gentry are so hard on us poor folks that if they saw such a thing in our hands, even if we told all, they might suspect the father of