Now the English who had come to Holland, having left their farms and made new homes in a Dutch city, found themselves without a way to make a living. The Dutch neighbors all around them were great workers. They worked steadily, and they worked hard. The men all had some business or trade to keep them busy. The women were fine housekeepers and kept their houses clean and neat as a pin. They were all careful and saving, and had ways of using many things which some people throw away as useless.
When the English people had looked around, and saw how things were, they made up their minds that they must learn to work like the Dutch. Therefore, they learned to spin wool into thread and yarn, to weave cloth, to twist twine, to make rope, hats and pipes, to build houses of either brick or lumber, and to make tables, chairs and other pieces of furniture. These are only a few of the things that the English learned of the Dutch.
The English children saw much to interest them in their queer new home. No doubt it seemed to them a funny, funny place, with its low houses with little window panes, its giant wind-mills scattered all around the country, its odd dog carts, and its comical little girls and boys. (1068. Girl with Cat.) This picture shows us that the little girls wore long dresses, and caps with curious ornaments on the sides of their heads. Like most of the people in that country, this little maid wore wooden shoes. These she hung up in an orderly manner every night, and she always scrubbed them well on Saturday.
The Dutch children were very kind to the little English boys and girls, and, you may be sure, played with them whenever they had a chance. What do you think the stranger children learned from their new playmates? They soon learned to talk in Dutch, and to act like their Dutch comrades.
The English fathers and mothers did not like that. They still loved England, and English ways, and the English language. Their love for their old home country made them grieve to see their children forgetting it. Therefore, they began to think of moving again. They said to themselves: “We can not stay here any longer. Before long our children and grandchildren will be like the Dutch. Our young men and young women will be marrying the Dutch. We must go somewhere else, where we can stay always and still be Englishmen.”
Long before this, people had sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to this country which we now call America. Those who stayed here wrote letters home, and those who went back told their friends of this vast country, with miles and miles of good rich lands. They told of the great woods, of the high mountains and wide rivers, of the plentiful supply of wild berries and nuts, and of the fish, wild ducks, rabbits, and deer that could be used for food.
Only Indians had been living here up to that time. These red men wandered about from place to place, stopping when they pleased, now here, now there, wherever they could find plenty to eat for a time. When they came to a place where they wished to camp, they would cut some poles, stand them up, and cover them with skins to form tents. This picture of a Comanche Indian Camp (1343) shows how an Indian village looks. The Arapahoe Indian Camp (1342) gives a nearer view of one of the tents, and we can see how the skins are pieced together and stretched to make a covering.
COMANCHE INDIAN CAMP
In both pictures are shown some of the Indians themselves wrapped in their blankets. In the second picture at the opening of the tent we see a little Indian child with no blanket on. A short distance away there is a fresh skin hung over a pole to dry.