To my father
  James J. Mapes
  this book is dedicated
   in gratitude and love

   Preface

    This little work aims
          to combine the instructive features
               of a book of travels
             with the
              interest of a domestic tale.

    Throughout its pages the
         descriptions
            of Dutch localities,
           customs,
         and general characteristics
              have been
                  given with scrupulous care.

    Many of its incidents
        are drawn from life,
           and the story
               of Raff Brinker
            is founded strictly upon fact.

    While acknowledging my obligations
           to many well-known writers
         on Dutch history,
           literature,
         and art,
           I turn
               with especial gratitude
                to those kind Holland
                       friends who,
         with generous zeal,
           have taken
               many a backward glance
             at their country
               for my sake,
         seeing it as it
              looked twenty years ago,
           when the Brinker home
            stood unnoticed
                   in sunlight and shadow.

    Should this simple narrative serve
          to give
               my young readers a
              just idea of Holland
                   and its resources,
           or present true pictures
               of its inhabitants
             and their every-day life,
         or free them
            from certain current prejudices
                          concerning
             that noble and enterprising people,
           the leading desire in writing
             it will have been satisfied.

    Should it cause
         even one heart
              to feel a deeper trust
                   in God's goodness and love,
           or aid any
               in weaving a life,
         wherein,
           through knots and entanglements,
         the golden thread
            shall never
                  be tarnished or broken,
           the prayer
             with which it was
                 begun and ended
                will have been answered.

    M.M.D.

    A LETTER FROM
        HOLLAND

    Amsterdam,
           July 30,
         1873

    DEAR BOYS AND GIRLS AT
        HOME:

    If you all
        could be here
               with me today,
           what fine times
             we might have walking
                   through this beautiful Dutch city!

    How we
        should stare
               at the crooked houses,
           standing with their gable ends
               to the street;
        at the little slanting mirrors
              fastened outside of the windows;
        at the wooden shoes
               and dogcarts nearby;
        the windmills in the distance;
           at the great warehouses;
        at the canals,
           doing the double duty
               of streets
             and rivers,
         and at the singular
              mingling of trees and masts
            to be
                  seen in every direction.

    Ah,
           it would be pleasant,
         indeed!

    But here
         I sit
               in a great hotel
              looking out
                   upon all these things,
           knowing quite well
             that not
               even the spirit
                   of the Dutch,
         which seems able
              to accomplish anything,
           can bring you
               at this moment
             across the moment.

    There is one comfort,
           however,
         in going
            through these wonderful
             Holland towns without
                          you
          --it would be dreadful
              to have
                   any of the party
                 tumble into the canals;
        and then
               these lumbering Dutch wagons,
           with their heavy wheels,
         so very far apart;
        what should I do
             if a
                   few dozen of you
                were to fall under THEM?

    And,
           perhaps,
         one of the wildest
               of my boys
            might harm a stork,
           and then all Holland
            would be against us!

    No. It is
         better as it is.

    You will be coming,
           one by one,
         as years go on,
           to see
               the whole thing for yourselves.

    Holland is
           as wonderful today as it
        was when,
           more than twenty years ago,
         Hans and Gretel
            skated on
                   the frozen Y. In fact,
           more wonderful,
         for every day
              increases the marvel
                   of its not
            being washed
                  away by the sea.

    Its cities have grown,
           and some of its peculiarities
              have been
                  washed away
                       by contact with other nations;
        but it is Holland still,
           and always will be
         --full of oddity,
               courage and industry--