And this was done, and the young girl was happy as a bird. So here she was, going down to Marken too.
Adela ran and kneeled down on the seat by Polly's side and hung over the rail too. "Don't the houses lean over queerly?" she said, pointing to the long narrow buildings they were leaving behind. "They look worse from the water than when we are in the midst of them."
"It's just as if they were holding each other up," said Polly. "Dear me, I should think they'd tumble over some fine day.
"What makes them sag so?" asked Adela, intently regarding them.
"That's because the city is built on piles, I suppose," said Jasper. "It's mostly sand in Holland, you know, particularly around Amsterdam, and so they had to drive down piles to get something strong enough to put their houses on. That's what—who was it?—oh I know—Erasmus—meant when he said, 'I know a city whose inhabitants dwell on the tops of the trees like rooks.'"
"O dear me," said Adela, quite impressed; "well, what makes them not sag any more?" she asked at length.
"Because they've sagged all they want to, I suppose'" said Jasper, laughing. "Anyway they've stood so for years on years—probably, so it's fair to believe they're all right."
"And I think they're ever so much prettier leaning every which way," declared Polly. "We can see plenty of straight houses at home, so it's nice to see crooked ones over here. Oh, Jasper, there's the King's palace!"
"Yes and there is the dome of the Lutheran Church," said Jasper.
"Look at that woman with the boy," said Adela, on the wharf. She's got a little black bonnet tied on top of her white cap.".