wine-growers, if he did not hope to make profit
of their wines? When my country has as many
ships as I wish her to have, I shall encourage
32 AN EXCURSION.
my merchants to ā I mean, I hope my country-
men will ā make very large purchases from foreign
countries."
" But if Heins sends away a ship load of
guilders," remonstrated Christian, " the States
will be so much the poorer, however much wine
may come in return ; because the wine will be
drunk in Amsterdam, and paid for with more
guilders. And then Heins will send out these
guilders again, I suppose, and not care how little
money there is left in the country, so long as
his own pocket is filled."
Heins smiled condescendingly, and promised
Christian that when he grew older he should
know better what he was talking about. How
should the boy know better, unless his questions
were answered? asked Gertrude, who came with
Katrina to relieve Master Peter of his charge.
But the good-natured sailor took his seat on a
piece of timber, saying that the little man should
have his questions properly attended to; ā questions
the very same as had been asked by many a taller,
if not a wiser man. Christian did not like to be
called " little man," but forgave the expression
in consideration of his questions being thought
manly. Peter told him that many kings having
feared for their kingdoms what Christian feared
for the States, ā that they would be emptied of
money, ā had passed laws to prohibit money
being sent out of the country. They had not
remembered, any more than Christian, that other
countries must buy also ; so that Heins's neigh-
bours would be taking money from abroad, while
AN EXCURSION. 33
Heins was sending it out, ā supposing that it
actually went in the shape of guilders.
" But how do we know that they will buy ?"
asked Christian. "If they do not choose to
buy ā what then ?"
" They always do choose it, and must choose
it, since they cannot get what they want in any
other way. The people in the mine-countries, ā
in South America, ā have more gold and silver
than they know what to do with ; and no linen,
no cloth, no knives and pots and kettles, no one
of many articles that they consider necessary to
their comfort. Now, would not it be very foolish
in their governors to prevent their sending out
their spare gold in exchange for what they must
otherwise do without V*
Yes : but Christian thought the case of min-
ing countries peculiar. No where else, he sup-
posed, was precious metal superabundant. If it
were indeed,- But perhaps the truest sign of
there being too much of it was the wish of the
people to send it away. What would Master
Peter do if he was a ruler ?
Master Peter's nation being in great want of
gold and silver, he should wish his people to
send out as much tallow and timber as they
could sell ; but if lie ruled in Holland, where
there was more precious metal than was wanted,
he would encourage the Dutch to send out vel-
vets and brandy, for the sake of bringing back,
not money, but wealth in some more useful form.
In either case, it would be for the sake of what
was brought back that he should be anxious to
have the produce of the country exported.
34 AN EXCURSION.
Of course, Christian observed, there could be
little good in sending property away unless for
the sake of what it brought back. He, for his
part, should have no particular wish to dispose
of his show-box at the next fair, if lie was to
have only an apple in exchange ; but he should
be glad to sell it for the model of a ship which
he much desired to have. In the latter case, he
should be much pleased ; but his pleasure would
be, not in parting with his show-box, but in
gaining the model.
" Well, my dear boy," said Hems, " that will
do. We are not children who want to have every
thing explained by a wise little man like you."
" Those kings were not children that Master
Peter was speaking of," observed Christian ;
" and yet they seemed to want to have it ex-
plained that they might as well part with their
gold as with anything else, since the thing that
signified most was whether they got anything
better in exchange."
" You have quite changed your opinion," said
Gertrude. " An hour ago, you thought it a very
sad thing to part with gold."
" Yes ; because I thought gold was somehow
more valuable than anything else ; that it had a
value of its own. But, if there is any one coun-
try where gold is of little use, it seems as if it
was much like other goods ; ā fit to be changed
away when one has too much of it, and got back
again when one wants it."
" Then it is time," said Gertrude, " that mer-
chants, and those who rule them, should leave
AN EXCURSION. 35
off being very glad when money is imported
rather than goods, and very sorry when it is ex-
ported."
" They may feel sure," Heins observed, " that
they will soon have an opportunity of getting
more money, if they want it. No one thing is
bought and sold so often as money ; and they
may be as confident that some will soon fall in
their way as that there would always be blue
cloth in the market, if every trader in the world
bought and sold blue cloth."
Christian saw yet another consequence from
what Master Peter had told him. If gold was
very cheap in Peru and very dear in Russia, and
if furs and hemp were very cheap in Russia and
very dear in Peru, it would do as much good to
the one country as to the other to exchange
them, while it could do nobody any harm. At
this grand discovery the boy was so delighted that
he ran the risk of bringing on his pain by the
start which he made to put his face opposite to
Master Peter's. It was very mortifying to hear
once more Heins's compassionate laugh, while
he asked whether everybody did not know this
before. Did not his mother send abroad the
butter which it cost very little to make at the
farm, and cause her household to eat salt butter
of foreign preparation ?
" I never could make that out ; and Kaatje
never could tell me," exclaimed Christian. " We
none of us like the salt butter so well ; and it
costs more to buy than our own fresh butter to
make ; and yet we must all eat salt butter."
36 AN EXCURSION.
" Because my motlicr can sell every kop of
her butter abroad for more than she pays for the
best salt butter that is brought in. You know
there is no butter to equal the Dutch."
" Nor anything else, by your own account,
Mr. Heins," replied Master Peter, laughing.
" There is nothing to be found abroad equal to
what you have at home. A pretty honest boast
this for a large importer ! What say you to
your corn ?"
" That our difficulty in producing it has
proved the loftiness of Dutch genius, and the
abundance of Dutch resources. Nature has
placed us in a barren district, where we have not
the less multiplied and prospered, through our
own talents and virtues, by which we have been
supplied from abroad with that which Providence
had forbidden to us."
" If Providence forbade us to have corn,"
said Christian aside to Gertrude, " how is it that
we have corn ? It seems to me that it is very
like Providence's having made the Eddystone
Rock a dangerous place. Men have been re-
minded to make it a useful beacon; and our
people at home have been obliged to begin a
trade in corn ; which trade has made them rich ;
so that they are better off, perhaps, than if they
hadjiad the most fertile fields in the world."
Gertrude smiled, and said she believed this was
the method by which Providence taught men to
help one another, and showed them how. After
this, Christian heard no more of the argument
going on about the extent to which the Dutch
AN EXCURSION. 37
traders had successfully carried their principles
of exporting goods that were cheap, and import-
ing those which were dear. He was pondering
the uses of adversity, ā of the i'ew kinds of adver-
sity which had particularly struck him. ā What
was there in the storms of the Zee, ā what was
there in the clay soil of Luc's garden, where no
hyacinths would grow, ā what was there in the
French king's ravaging wars, ā what was there
in his own horrible pain, to show men how to
help one another ? In his own case, one side
of the question was easily, answered. At this
moment, while his weary head was resting on
Master Peter's breast, wondering at the depth of
voice which vibrated from within, he felt that his
infirmities allured the wise and the strong to
help and comfort him ; but how wars stimulated
men to aid as well as destroy one another ā
much more, how he could be of service to any
body, were subjects for much deeper meditation.
Just when he had an impression that he had
arrived near the solution, he unconsciously lost
the thread of his argument ; and when his com-
panions, some time afterwards, would have asked
his opinion of what was last said, they found that
he was happily asleep on the bosom of his new
friend.
The hut in which Master Peter had taken up
his abode being just at hand, he insisted on lay-
ing the boy on his own bed, while he took his
frugal workman's meal. Gertrude, who said she
could see the dock-yards any day of her life, re-
16 E
38 \N EXCURSION.
main eel with Christian, while her guests conti-
nued their survey of the curiosities of the place.
When they returned to the house to dinner,
they found that the other expected guest, Aalbert
Visscher, had arrived, and was making himself
very agreeahle to Christian ; ā probably more so
than to Gertrude; since his discourse was of
pleasures whose number and variety could
scarcely be approved by such steady and self-
denying persons as the Vanderputs. Gay were
the tales of the snipe-shooting and skaiting of
last winter ; of the sailing and fishing matches
of the spring ; and of the wagers of fancy pipes
and rare tobacco which yet remained to be de-
cided by the arrival or non-arrival of expected
ships by a certain day. Gertrude rose and
offered to show Christian the curious time-piece
he had inquired for ; ā the time-piece whose
hours were struck on porcelain cups by a silver
hammer. It was almost the first time Gertrude
was ever known to break voluntarily the modest
silence of a Dutchwoman in company ; much
more to interrupt the conversation of another ;
and Christian looked up surprised.
** My poor boy," exclaimed Aalbert, " I beg
your pardon. I only thought of amusing you,
and I am afraid I have hurt you."
" O, because I cannot shoot and skait and
swim ? It does not hurt me, indeed, or I am
sure I should be very unhappy ; for I hear of
something every day that I shall never be able to
do."
AN EXCURSION. 39
" Christian likes to hear of other "people's
pleasures, whether he can join in them or not,"
observed Gertrude. " But he can lay wagers,
and may be all the more easily tempted to do
so from having fewer amusements than you, Mr.
Visscher."
" And you do not approve of laying wagers,
my sober lady," replied Aalbert.
" It is God who appoints the winds, and makes
a path in the deep waters for the blessings he
brings us," replied Gertrude ; " and I think it
scarcely becomes us to sport with the uncertainty
with which He is pleased to try our faith, and
make matter for gambling of His secret coun-
sels."
The pastor enforced the impiety. Yanderput
thought all gambling vicious ; and Hems proved
to Christian that in him it would be peculiarly
atrocious, since, as he could never hope to earn
any money, his speculations must be at the risk
of others. Christian ingenuously admitted all
this, but was not the less in a hurry to ask for
more tales of adventure from the gay bill-broker,
as soon as the pastor's long grace was over.
Nothing more was said of wagers; nor was it
necessary, so ample were Aalbert's other re-
sources of amusement, ā or, as the pastor ex-
pressed it, of dissipation. Aymond's counte-
nance wore a deeper gravity every moment as
he saw the eagerness with which the children
listened, the indolent satisfaction with which
Vanderput let his guests be thus entertained, and
the interest with which even Gertrude appeared
e2
40 AN EXCURSION.
to be beguiled. Heine also perceived this inte-
rest ; and thought it time to be exerting himself
to rival it. He took advantage of every long
puff with which his adversary regaled himself, to
draw attention upon his own gaieties. For every
wild-duck, he had a story of a tulip ; for every
marvellous bagging of snipe, he had an unheard-
of draught of herrings. If Aalbert had made a
humorous bargain at the last Rotterdam fair, he
had made an excessively acute one. If the bill-
broker had met with a ducking in Haerlem lake,
the importer had been within an ace of running
aground in the Zuyder Zee. There was a re-
markable parallel between their fortunes if Ger-
trude would but perceive it. What she was most
ready to perceive, however, was that the conver-
sation grew very tiresome after Heins had taken
it up ; and she was not sorry when the boatmen
sent in word that it was time the party were
afloat, if they meant to reach Amsterdam before
the gates were closed.
The prudent guests were in haste to be gone.
It was true that, by paying a stiver each, they
might gain admittance any time within an hour
from the first closing of the gates ; but where
was the use of paying a stiver, if it could be as
well avoided ?
As it was bad for Christian's cough to be on
the water in the evening, he was left behind to
enjoy one more survey of the dock-yard, ā one
more chance of intercourse with his dear Master
Peter. He sacrificed something, he knew, in not
seeing the congregation of dark masts springing
AN EXCURSION. 41
from the silver mist, and not feeling the awe of
penetrating, the fog where unknown obstacles
might be concealed. He remembered something
of the night-call of the boatmen, alternating
with the splash of their oars, as they approached
the crowded harbour ; and he would have liked
to hear it again. But Gertrude was at hand to
hearken to and join in his vesper prayer, and to
sing him to sleep with any hymn he chose.
" My pain has not come to-day, nor yester-
day, nor the day before," said he, as he lay down.
" I do not think it will come yet. O, Gertrude,
supposeit should never come any more !"
M And if not," said Gertrude, with a pitying
smile, " what then ?"
" Why, then I think I should like to live a
thousand years, like the man we were fancying
the other day. But, perhaps, I might want
next to be able to walk, and then to have no
more coughing (for I am very tired of coughing
sometimes). So I dare say it is best "
" It is always best to make ourselves as happy
as it pleases God to give us power to be, my
dear boy ; and I think you do this very well for
a little lad."
As she stooped tb kiss his forehead, Chris-
tian whispered that she very often helped to make
him happy. " But," said he, M you think my
pain will certainly come again ?"
Gertrude could not tell. She recommended
thinking as little about it as possible. If he
thought about God, and what the gospel promises,
lie would be happy at the time, and best prepared,
if his pain should seize him, e 3
42 AN EXCURSION.
" Whenever I think of Jesus Christ, Ger
trade, it makes me long to have lived when he
lived. If he had cured me, as he cured so many,
I would never have denied him, or gone away
without thanking him. Do you really believe
anybody ever did that V
Gertrude was afraid it was too true ; but sug-
gested some palliations ; and hinted that there
were ways of testifying faithlessness or disciple-
ship to Jesus even now, when he was present
only in his gospel.
His spirit pillowed upon this truth, Christian
fell asleep, and dreamed that he met Jesus on a
shore, which would have been that of the Zuy-
der Zee, only that there were mountains ; and
that Jesus bade him walk, and that he not only
walked, but flew up to the very top of the highest
mountain, where he met Gertrude, and told her
what had happened ; and that she sang his fa-
vourite hymn ; and that, though they seemed
alone, many voices came to sing it with her
from every side.
Chapter III.
FAMILY ARRANGEMENTS.
All circumstances seemed to favour Heins's
wish of trying what he could do to surpass his
father in the matter of commercial success. His
partner ā the most irksome check upon his en-
FAMILY ARRANGEMENTS. 43
terprises, ā was this year chosen one of the four
reigning burgomasters; and it was impossible
that Vanderput should give as much attention as
usual to his private business, while engaged by
his public office. From the presence of his mo-
ther, Heins was also to be soon released ; a pre-
sence which imposed some degree of restraint on
his projects, though Mrs. Snoek thought no
more than the other women of Amsterdam of
interfering in those commercial affairs of which
they were supposed incompetent to judge.
This prudent lady found her worldly circum-
stances so much altered by the death of her
husband, that she thought a considerable differ-
ence in her way of life desirable; though it was
impossible to affirm such a change to be neces-
sary. It was not enough to satisfy her that she
and her younger children had an abundant capi-
tal, (partly invested in country estates, and partly
deposited in the Bank of Amsterdam.) besides
that which remained in the hands of the firm.
There was no longer a revenue from the exer-
tions of the head of the family ; and it appeared
to her that there ought, therefore, to be a corre-
sponding reduction in the family expenditure,
and a more careful superintendence than ever of
the means of revenue which remained. She de-
cided on going, with her younger children, to
reside on an estate which she possessed in a cheap
part of the country, to the north, where she might
herself manage the dairies, which had proved
very productive while in the hands of her boors,
and might be made still more profitable under
44 FAMILY ARRANGEMENTS.
her own management. Heins smiled to himself
at this prudence in a rich widow, who could have
afforded to gratify any ambition in which she
might have been disposed to indulge ; but he
was too well pleased to be left to his own devices
to offer any objection to the removal of the rest
of the family to the neighbourhood of Winkel.
He described the attractions of the green meadows
to Roselyn, and of the shores of the Zee to Luc ;
and was very obliging in expediting matters for
the letting of the house, and the despatch of the
necessary furniture by the treckschuit. The
house-tax being 2 J per cent, of, the value of the
house, whether it was tenanted or empty, the
leaving it empty was not to be thought of, if
such an extremity could by any means be avoided ;
but the tax on servants was also high ; and this
expense must go on till the family departed for
Winkel, unless, as Heins dreaded, his mother
should dismiss a part of her establishment while
the eyes of her Amsterdam acquaintance were
yet upon her. The object of the mother being
to dismiss all her town servants but Kaatje, and
her son's, to prevent their acquaintance witness-
ing this measure of economy, both were eager
to let the house, and thereby expedite the final
arrangements. It was perfectly satisfactory to
all parties that Vanderput felt himself called upon,
on the reception of his new dignity, to exhibit a
little more outward state than formerly ; to quit
his humble abode, bring his sister to keep his
house at Amsterdam, and make the cottage at
Saardam his country abode. He agreed with his
FAMILY ARRANGEMENTS. 45
partner that the Reiser's Graft was a very proper
situation for the residence of a reigning burgo-
master ; and presently concluded a bargain lor
Mrs. Snoek's house, to the satisfaction of both
parties. Nothing then remained to impede the
execution of the family plana ; and Heins, after
seating his mother in the boat, carefully placing
Christian on his cushions by her side, and bid-
ding farewell, with a solemn countenance, to the
joyous Luc and Roselyn, betook himself home-
wards with a full head, a light heart, and a most
satisfactory sense of his own importance as the
sole representative in Amsterdam of the opulent
family of Snoek.
Ileitis possessed in perfection the happy art of
deriving importance to himself from whatever
conferred it on his connexions. TSo one looked
more ostentatiously grave than he 00 the day
when his partner was proceeding in state to take
the oaths, and examine the treasure at the Bank,
in virtue of his high office. Heins poshed his
way through the crowd which surrounded the
Stadt-house, and exhibited himself by turns at
all the seven porticoes which answered to the
seven provinces, glancing around him at each, in
hopes of meeting the eye of some provincial con-
nexion whom be might either pass over with a
slight notice, or from whom he might admit con-
gratulations on the honour with which his firm
was now invested for ever. The greetings were
as respectful as he could desire. They could not
be exceeded, unless by such as he might receive
when he should himself be a reigning burgo-
46 FAMILY ARRANGEMENTS.
master. Smoke rolled away in volumes from
around his dignified person, while a dozen pipes
at a time were dislodged at his approach ; a hum
of voices arose wherever he turned, and made
itself heard above the bell-music ringing from
the upper air. Many who had before insisted
on room for their breeches, as the English ladies
of the same period for their hoops, now squeezed
themselves into small compass to let the junior
partner of Vanderput pursue his majestic way.
Jt seemed that Hems was to play the first part on
the scene till the rare and thrilling sound of
horses' feet should be heard, betokening the
approach of the magistrates : but a mortifying
circumstance occurred, which disturbed the tran-
quillity of the little great man.
He felt himself grasped on the shoulder by a
heavy hand ; and, turning round, was astonished
to see that one in a common sailor's dress had
thus dared to accost him. He superciliously re-
leased his shoulder, and would have passed on ;
but Master Peter would not let him escape thus
easily. He wanted to inquire after his little
friend Christian, and to complain of Gertrude
for fixing her abode where it was impossible for
her gentle face any more to look down upon
the spot where Master Peter and his companions
worked. He seemed amused instead of offended
at Heins's endeavours to shake him off, and, by
some inexplicable means, interested the bystand-
ers, so that it might have been unwise to treat
him with downright contempt.
"1 have come from Saardam this morning,
FAMILY ARRANGEMENTS. 47
Mr. Snoek, to assist at this honourable cere-
mony."
" One might thereby know you for a foreign-
er," replied Heins. *' Our workmen of Holland
do not leave their occupation to look on shows,
ā even so important as this. You may not
find your master very ready to ask you to work
again, if you must thus run away for a frolic."
Master Peter smiled as if he was not very
uneasy on this point, and observed that a true
Hollander should be gratified by the interest of
foreigners in the display of civic honours. Heins
replied that this depended much on the quality of
the foreign observers ; to which Master Peter
agreed, going on to say,
11 1 cannot see what I wish, alter all. Your
people are ready enough to show parts of this
magnificent building."
M It appears magnificent to foreigners, no
doubt," replied Heins, with dry complacency;
" but we must have something better than this
hereafter."
" Something better than this noble Stadt-
house !" exclaimed Master Peter. " Where will
you find a better architect than Van Campen?
And when will Holland be more prosperous than
in Van Campen's time ? Holland is not what
she was ; and she will vet look back with a me-
lancholy pride on the century when the Stadt-
house was built at Amsterdam."
" You think so much of this place because
you have seen nothing like it, I suppose. You
have seen Moscow, perhaps V
48 FAMILY ARRANGEMENTS.
Peter had happened to be there once ; far in-
land as it was for a common sailor to go.
" AVell ; you had better get such a building as
this erected there, if you can persuade your em-
peror to undertake so grand an enterprise ; and
then we will show you what better things we
can do."
" Perhaps our emperor will take you at 'your
word, Mr. Snoek, while he is about building his
new city. We have the Kremlin already at Mos-
cow ; but our new city would be graced by such