"What are the Blue Stairs, Lambert?" asked Ben.
"They are the highest point of the Dunes. You have a grand view of the ocean from there, besides a fine chance to see how wonderful these Dunes are. One can hardly believe that the wind could ever heap up sand in so remarkable a way. But we have to go through Bloemendal to get there—not a very pretty village, and some distance from here. What do you say?"
"Oh, I am ready for anything. For my part, I would rather steer direct for Leyden, but we'll do as the captain says—hey, Jacob?"
"Ya, dat ish goot," said Jacob, who felt decidedly more like taking another nap, than ascending the Blue Stairs.
The captain was in favor of going to Leyden.
"It's four long miles from here. (Full sixteen of your English miles, Benjamin.) We have no time to lose if you wish to reach there before midnight. Decide quickly, boys—Blue Stairs or Leyden?"
"Leyden," they answered—and were out of Haarlem in a twinkling, admiring the lofty, tower-like windmills and pretty country-seats as they left the city behind them.
"If you really wish to see Haarlem," said Lambert to Ben, after they had skated a while in silence, "you should visit it in summer. It is the greatest place in the world for beautiful flowers. The walks around the city are superb; and the 'Wood' with its miles of noble elms, all in full feather, is something to remember. You need not smile, old fellow, at my saying 'full feather'—I was thinking of waving plumes, and got my words mixed up a little. But a Dutch elm beats everything; it is the noblest tree on earth, Ben—if you except the English oak——"
"Aye," said Ben, solemnly, "if you except the English oak"—and for some moments he could scarcely see the canal because Robby and Jenny kept bobbing in the air before his eyes.