"I should emigrate if I lived here," said Paul.
"The people of Holland are very much attached to their country," replied Dr. Winstock.
"Well, they ought to be, on the principle that we like best what has cost us the most trouble to procure," added Paul. "It seems to me a great pity that people should struggle here to keep their heads above water, when we have so much spare land in America. We could take them all in without feeling it."
"Dutchmen would not feel at home on high ground."
"We could plant them down in Louisiana, and even treat them to an occasional inundation."
"Certainly we should be very happy to accommodate them with a country. We have a great many Dutchmen already, and they make thrifty, industrious, and useful people," continued the doctor. "But I think, if Holland were blotted out of existence, the world would miss it very much."
"This is a great lumber port," said Mr. Fluxion. "Those great rafts which float down the Rhine from Switzerland are mostly brought to this place. I hope the boys will have a chance to see one of those rafts, for they are stupendous affairs. One of them sometimes contains a hundred and fifty thousand dollars' worth of lumber, and has a crew of four or five hundred men."
"I think I heard Mr. Lowington say that we were to go down the Rhine," replied Paul.
"That is the Kloveniers Doelen," said Mr. Fluxion, as he led his companions into a back street and pointed out an old Gothic building. "It was here that the Protestant divines discussed the doctrines of the reformed religion, whose 'miraculous labors made hell tremble,' to quote the words of its presiding officer. The assembly is called in history the Synod of Dort. The building, as you may see by reading the sign, is now a low public house and dance-hall."
"Reading the sign!" exclaimed Paul, laughing; "a fellow would knock all the teeth out of his head in attempting to speak some of these words."