“CALLING ANXIOUSLY FOR HIM.”
“‘It’s his clothes!’ he cried, in a trembling voice. Then, ‘It’s Hans himself, thank God! thank God!’
“He had ‘held on,’ you see, until he fainted with pain and exhaustion. Wet through, cold as ice, his whole hand and arm swelled terribly, he still held on, unconsciously, with his finger in the leak.
“So Hans prevented the destruction of the great dyke. He lost his own right hand in doing it, to be sure; but in losing that he had saved Holland.”
“One more! One more!” chorused the children, as their uncle concluded. “That was so short!”
“Well,” said he, good-naturedly, “throw on a few more ‘silver rags’, Tom; there’s just time for a very short one before dinner. Do you remember that little Fred Colebrook who came here for a few minutes, the day the Indians were tried?”
“The one with the curly hair? Yes, sir. He’s visiting at Mr. Thompson’s, isn’t he?”
“Yes; his home is in a queer place—at least, what was his home till last year, when his folks moved to the city.
“It was a little valley, with huge mountains on every side, so steep and so close together that you would think there was no way to get through to the world outside. Some of the mountains were covered with pine and spruce trees, clinging to their sides like the shaggy fur of a Newfoundland dog; others were bare from top to bottom, with bits of red stone tumbling over their ugly-looking ledges almost every day. The valley itself was pretty enough, with its tiny green meadow, and a brook which laughed and played in the sunshine all day long. It was rather a lonesome place, to be sure, but Fred did not mind that; for did he not have his father, and his mother, and the workingman for company; besides the old red cow, the horses, and five small gray kittens? These kittens were Fred’s special pets. He was never tired of feeling their soft fur and cool little feet against his cheek, and hearing their sleepy purr-r-purr-r. Sometimes he would carry one of them slyly up to the sober cow, feeding quietly in front of the house, and place the kitten on her back. It was hard to tell which was more astonished, the kitten or the cow. At any rate, they both would jump, with such funny looks of surprise, and the kitten would run away as fast as ever she could, to tell her adventure to the other four.