Hans Brinker/Silver Skates/etc | Page 9

clustered, praying to God for mercy and to their fellow men for
assistance. As the storm at last was subsiding, boats began to ply in
every direction, saving those who were struggling in the water, picking

fugitives from roofs and treetops, and collecting the bodies of those
already drowned." No less than one hundred thousand human beings
had perished in a few hours. Thousands upon thousands of dumb
creatures lay dead upon the waters, and the damage to property was
beyond calculation.
Robles, the Spanish governor, was foremost in noble efforts to save life
and lessen the horrors of the catastrophe. He had previously been hated
by the Dutch because of his Spanish or Portuguese blood, but by his
goodness and activity in their hour of disaster, he won all hearts to
gratitude. He soon introduced an improved method of constructing the
dikes and passed a law that they should in future be kept up by the
owners of the soil. There were fewer heavy floods from this time,
though within less than three hundred years, six fearful inundations
swept over the land.
In the spring there is always great danger of inland freshets, especially
in times of thaw, because the rivers, choked with blocks of ice,
overflow before they can discharge their rapidly rising waters into the
ocean. Adding to this that the sea chafes and presses against the dikes,
it is no wonder that Holland is often in a state of alarm. The greatest
care is taken to prevent accidents. Engineers and workmen are stationed
all along in threatened places, and a close watch is kept up night and
day. When a general signal of danger is given, the inhabitants all rush
to the rescue, eager to combine against their common foe. As,
everywhere else, straw is supposed to be of all things the most helpless
in the water, of course, in Holland, it must be rendered the mainstay
against a rushing tide. Huge straw mats are pressed against the
embankments, fortified with clay and heavy stone, and once adjusted,
the ocean dashes against them in vain.
Raff Brinker, the father of Gretel and Hans, had for years been
employed upon the dikes. It was at the time of a threatened inundation,
when in the midst of a terrible storm, in darkness and sleet, the men
were laboring at a weak spot near the Veermyk sluice, that he fell from
the scaffolding and became insensible. From that hour he never worked
again; though he lived on, mind and memory were gone.
Gretel could not remember him otherwise than as the strange, silent
man whose eyes followed her vacantly whichever way she turned, but
Hans had recollections of a hearty, cheerful-voiced father who was

never tired of bearing him upon his shoulder and whose careless song
still seemed echoing near when he lay awake at night and listened.

The Silver Skates

Dame Brinker earned a scant support for her family by raising
vegetables, spinning, and knitting. Once she had worked on board the
barges plying up and down the canal and had occasionally been
harnessed with other women to the towing rope of a pakschuyt plying
between Broek and Amsterdam. But when Hans had grown strong and
large, he had insisted on doing all such drudgery in her place. Besides,
her husband had become so very helpless of late that he required her
constant care. Although not having as much intelligence as a little child,
he was yet strong of arm and very hearty, and Dame Brinker had
sometimes great trouble in controlling him.
"Ah! children, he was so good and steady," she would sometimes say,
"and as wise as a lawyer. Even the burgomaster would stop to ask him
a question, and now, alack! he doesn't know his wife and little ones.
You remember the father, Hans, when he was himself--a great brave
man--don't you?"
"Yes, indeed, Mother, he knew everything and could do anything under
the sun--and how he would sing! Why, you used to laugh and say it
was enough to set the windmills dancing."
"So I did. Bless me! how the boy remembers! Gretel, child, take that
knitting needle from your father, quick; he'll get it in his eyes maybe;
and put the shoe on him. His poor feet are like ice half the time, but I
can't keep 'em covered, all I can do--" And then, half wailing, half
humming, Dame Brinker would sit down and fill the low cottage with
the whirr of her spinning wheel.
Nearly all the outdoor work, as well as the household labor, was
performed by Hans and Gretel. At certain seasons of the year the
children went out day after day to gather peat, which they would stow
away in square, bricklike pieces, for fuel. At other times,