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It's the goose girl, Gretel, looking for rats." "Well, what of it?" squeaked Voost. "Isn't SHE a bundle of rags, I'd like to know?" "Ha! ha! Pretty good for you, Voost! You'll get a medal for wit yet, if you keep on." "You'd get something else, if her brother Hans were here. I'll warrant you would!" said a muffled-up little fellow with a cold in his head.
Where?" cried a dozen voices. "Why, don't you see? That dark thing over there by the idiot's cottage." "I don't see anything," said one. "I do," shouted another. "It's a dog." "Where's any dog?" put in a squeaky voice that we have heard before. "It's no such thing it's a heap of rags." "Pooh! Voost," retorted another gruffly, "that's about as near the fact as you ever get.
As Hans was NOT there, Voost could afford to scout the insinuation. "Who cares for HIM, little sneezer? I'd fight a dozen like him any day, and you in the bargain." "You would, would you? I'd like to catch you all at it," and, by way of proving his words, the sneezer skated off at the top of his speed.
"That's Jacob's English cousin," put in Master Voost, delighted at being able to give the information. "That's his English cousin, and, oh, he's got such a funny little name Ben Dobbs. He's going to stay with him until after the grand race."
"Ha, ha!" laughed little Voostenwalbert Schimmelpenninck, delighted at the prospect of a fight, and sure that, if it should come to blows, his favorite Peter could beat a dozen excitable fellows like Carl. Something in Peter's eye made Carl glad to turn to a weaker offender. He wheeled furiously upon Voost. "What are you shrieking about, you little weasel?
So a vote was passed unanimously in favor of allowing the now popular Voost to join the party, if his parents would consent. "Good night!" sang out the happy youngster, skating homeward with all his might. "Good night!"
Now, in Holland very young children wear a thin, padded cushion around their heads, surmounted with a framework of whalebone and ribbon, to protect them in case of a fall; and it is the dividing line between babyhood and childhood when they leave it off. Voost had arrived at this dignity several years before; consequently Jacob's insult was rather to great for endurance.
Hendrick, Hilda, Broom, Katy, Huygens, and Lucretia! And thy cousins, Wolfert, Diedrich, Mayken, Voost, and Katrina! Good children ye have been, in the main, since I last accosted ye. Diedrich was rude at the Haarlem fair last fall, but he has tried to atone for it since.
"Yes," chimed in half a dozen voices, "a beautiful pair of silver skates perfectly magnificent with, oh! such straps and silver bells and buckles!" "WHO said they had bells?" put in a small voice of the boy with the big name. "I say so, Master Voost," replied Rychie.