I wonder what you will notice the very first thing when you reach Holland.
Perhaps you will see a group of children running down the street with their wooden shoes clacking on the stone walks.
Or perhaps you will see some girls standing at a corner knitting stockings, or a boy driving a dog harnessed to a little cart.
If you take a train and ride through the country you will see many strange things.
There are big windmills everywhere, with long arms, and sails to catch the wind. These mills turn wheels to pump water and grind corn and saw wood. In Holland there are no rivers with falls and swift currents to turn the mill wheels.
In some towns there are canals instead of streets, with bridges for the people to cross from one side to the other.
In summer there are many boats going up and down the canals, but in winter the water in the canals freezes, and then everybody skates. Think what fun it must be to skate to church, to skate to market, to skate to school, and then skate home again!
A great many of the poor children in Holland wear wooden shoes when they are out of doors. When they go into the house they take off their shoes and leave them at the door. You can tell, by counting the pairs of shoes at the door, how many children there are in the house.
Every week the children scrub their wooden shoes with soap and water until they are almost as white as snow; then they dry them in the sun, or before the fire in the big open fireplace.