Page:Things Seen In Holland (1912).djvu/64

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Things Seen in Holland

who will remember that ancient mariner old Spaan. He was wont to beckon the stranger to follow him to the strand, when, with a comprehensive wave of the arm, he would say to his victims: “You see all this? Well, it is the sea—the sea!” the last word pronounced with much emphasis. And then his outstretched palm would be ready to receive a reward for the valuable information he had imparted.

Each and every Dutch town has some special feature. The towns of old Frisia, the most poetical province in the Netherlands, are famous for their pretty women and their big Ameland horses, with small heads and long and broad necks. Enkhuizen, the deadest of all the “dead cities” on the Zuider Zee, is worth strolling through, if only to imagine oneself transplanted into the Middle Ages. Moreover, it is the birthplace of Paul Potter. Hoorn,

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