DODGE, Mary Mapes, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates

HANS BRINKER or THE SILVER SKATES
by Mary Mapes Dodge

QUOTES FOR DISCUSSION

Notwithstanding the sea pushing to get in, and the lakes struggling to get out, and the overflowing canals, rivers, and ditches, in many districts there is no water fit to swallow; our poor Hollanders must go dry or drink wine and beer or send far into the inland to Utrecht and other favored localities for that precious fluid older than Adam yet younger than the morning dew. Sometimes, indeed, the inhabitants can swallow a shower when they are provided with any means of catching it; but generally they are like the albatross-haunted sailors in Coleridge’s famous poem “The Ancient Mariner.” They see

     Water, Water, everywhere,
     Nor any drop to drink!

Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 2 Holland, pg.. 11

There are said to be at least ninety-nine hundred large windmills in Holland, with sails ranging from eighty to one hundred and twenty feet long.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 2 Holland, pg.. 13

Their yearly cost is said to be nearly ten million dollars.  [windmills]
Mary Mapes, Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 2 Holland, pg.. 13

One of the old prisons of Amsterdam, called the Rasphouse, because the thieves and vagrants who were confined there were employed in rasping logwood wood, had a cell for the punishment of lazy prisoners. In one corner of this cell was a pump, and in another, an opening through which a steady stream of water was admitted. The prisoner could take his choice, either to stand still and be drowned or to work for dear life at the pump and keep the flood down until his jailer chose to relieve him.

Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 2 Holland, pg.. 14

Robles, the Spanish governor, was foremost in noble efforts to save life and lessen the horrors of the catastrophe. He had previously been hated by the Dutch because of his Spanish or Portuguese blood, but by his goodness and activity in their hour of disaster, he won all hearts to gratitude.

Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 2 Holland, pg.. 16

It was not long before he was the only youngster in the school who had not stood at least ONCE in the corner of horrors, where hung a dreaded whip, and over it this motto: “Leer, leer! jou luigaart, of dit endje touw zal je leeren!” *{Learn! learn! you idler, or this rope’s end shall teach you.}

Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 3 The Silver Skates, pg.. 20

Often the swiftest among them was seen to dodge from under the very nose of some pompous lawgiver or doctor who, with folded arms, was skating leisurely toward the town; or a chain of girls would suddenly break at the approach of a fat old burgomaster who, with gold-headed cane poised in air, was puffing his way to Amsterdam.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 3 The Silver Skates, pg.. 21

Shame on you to reproach me for that! I’m as true a Protestant, in sooth, as any fine lady that walks into church, but it’s no wrong to turn sometimes to the good Saint Nicholas. Tut! It’s a likely story if one can’t do that, without one’s children flaring up at it—and he the boys’ and girls’ own saint.

Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 5 Shadows in the Home, pg.. 35

More than once he had seen his mother, in hours of sore need, take the watch from its hiding place, half resolved to sell it, but she had always conquered the temptation.

“No, Hans,” she would say, “we must be nearer starvation than this before we turn faithless to the father!”
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 5 Shadows in the Home, pg.. 35

She could not remember when she had seen the children idle away an hour of daylight in this manner, and the thought of such luxury quite appalled her. By way of compensation she now flew about the room in extreme haste.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 6 Sunbeams, pg.. 43

But Hans WAS bidden, and that, too, by a voice he seldom disregarded—his own conscience.

“Here comes the greatest doctor in the world,” whispered the voice. “God has sent him. You have no right to buy skates when you might, with the same money, purchase such aid for your father!”

Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 7, Hans Has His Way, pg.. 46

“I shall be there. A hopeless case,” he muttered to himself, “but the boy pleases me. His eye is like my poor Laurens’s. Confound it, shall I never forget that young scoundrel!”

Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 7, Hans Has His Way, pg.. 48

We all know how, before the Christmas tree began to flourish in the home life of our country, a certain “right jolly old elf,” with “eight tiny reindeer,” used to drive his sleigh-load of toys up to our housetops, and then bounded down the chimney to fill the stockings so hopefully hung by the fireplace. His friends called his Santa Claus, and those who were most intimate ventured to say “Old Nick.” It was said that he originally came from Holland. Doubtless he did, but, if so, he certainly, like many other foreigners, changed his ways very much after landing upon our shores. In Holland, Saint Nicholas is a veritable saint and often appears in full costume, with his embroidered robes, glittering with gems and gold, his miter, his crosier, and his jeweled gloves. Here Santa Claus comes rollicking along, on the twenty-fifth of December, our holy Christmas morn. But in Holland, Saint Nicholas visits earth on the fifth, a time especially appropriated to him. Early on the morning of the sixth, he distributes his candies, toys, and treasures, then vanishes for a year.

Christmas Day is devoted by the Hollanders to church rites and pleasant family visiting. It is on Saint Nicholas’s Eve that their young people become half wild with joy and expectation. To some of them it is a sorry time, for the saint is very candid, and if any of them have been bad during the past year, he is quite sure to tell them so. Sometimes he gives a birch rod under his arm and advises the parents to give them scoldings in place of confections, and floggings instead of toys.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 9, The Festival of St. Nicholas, pg.. 56

Holland is famous for this branch of manufacture. Every possible thing is copied in miniature for the benefit of the little ones; the intricate mechanical toys that a Dutch youngster tumbles about in stolid unconcern would create a stir in our patent office.

Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 10, What the Boys Saw and Did in Amsterdam, pg.. 68

He had no money to spare, for with true Dutch prudence, the party had agreed to take with them merely the sum required for each boy’s expenses and to consign the purse to Peter for safekeeping.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 10, What the Boys Saw and Did in Amsterdam, pg.. 68

Van Speyk. Don’t you remember? He was in the height of an engagement with the Belgians, and when he found that they had the better of him and would capture his ship, he blew it up, and himself, too, rather than yield to the enemy.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 10, What the Boys Saw and Did in Amsterdam, pg.. 71

“Well, what about Van Tromp? He was a great Dutch admiral, wasn’t he?”
“Yes, he was in more than thirty sea fights. He beat the Spanish fleet and an English one, and then fastened a broom to his masthead to show that he had swept the English from the sea. Takes the Dutch to beat, my boy!”
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 10, What the Boys Saw and Did in Amsterdam, pg.. 71

*{Although the Tulip Mania did not prevail in England as in Holland, the flower soon became an object of speculation and brought very large prices. In 1636, tulips were publicly sold on the Exchange of London. Even as late as 1800 a common price was fifteen guineas for one bulb. Ben did not know that in his own day a single tulip plant, called the “Fanny Kemble”, had been sold in London for more than seventy guineas. Mr. Mackay, in his “Memoirs of Popular Delusions,” tells a funny story of an English botanist who happened to see a tulip bulb lying in the conservatory of a wealthy Dutchman. Ignorant if its value, he took out his penknife and, cutting the bulb in two, became very much interested in his investigations. Suddenly the owner appeared and, pouncing furiously upon him, asked if he knew what he was doing.  
“Peeling a most extraordinary onion,” replied the philosopher.
“Hundert tousant tuyvel!” shouted the Dutchman, “it’s an Admiral Van der Eyk!” “Thank you,” replied the traveler, immediately writing the name in his notebook.
  “Pray, are these very common in your country?” “Death and the tuyvel!” screamed the Dutchman, “come before the Syndic and you shall see!” In spite of his struggles the poor investigator, followed by an indignant mob, was taken through the streets to a magistrate. Soon he learned to his dismay that he had destroyed a bulb worth 4,000 florins  ($1,600). He was lodged in prison until securities could be procured for the payment of the sum.}
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 11, Big Manias and Little Oddities, pg.. 79

Why, persons were so crazy after tulip bulbs in those days that they paid their weight in gold for them.”

“What, the weight of a man!” cried Ben, showing such astonishment in his eyes that Ludwig fairly capered.

“No, no, the weight of a BULB. The first tulip was sent here from Constantinople about the year 1560. It was so much admired that the rich people of Amsterdam sent to Turkey for more. From that time they grew to be the rage and it lasted for years. Single roots brought from one to four thousand florins; and one bulb, the Semper Augustus, brought fifty-five hundred.”
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 11, Big Manias and Little Oddities, pg.. 79

Every Saturday Aunt Poot and her fat Kate go into that parlor and sweep and polish and scrub; then it is darkened and closed until Saturday comes again; not a soul enters it in the meantime; but the schoonmaken, as she calls it, must be done just the same.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 11, Big Manias and Little Oddities, pg.. 83

—“you must give us the pleasure of dividing the money with you.”

“No, mynheer,” answered Hans. He spoke quietly, without pretence or any grace of manner, but Peter, somehow, felt rebuked, and put the silver back without a word.

I like that boy, rich or poor, he thought to himself,
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 14, Hans, pg.. 95

And, Hans Brinker, not as a reward, but as a gift, take a few of these guilders.”

Hans shook his head resolutely.

“No, no, mynheer. I cannot take it. If I could find work in Broek or at the South Mill, I would be glad, but it is the same story everywhere—‘Wait until spring’”.

Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 14, Hans, pg.. 97

“Come, get something to eat, and I will detain you no longer.”

What a quick, wistful look Hans threw upon him! Peter wondered that he had not noticed before that the poor boy was hungry.

“Ah, mynheer, even now the mother may need me, the father may be worse—I must not wait. May God care for you.” And, nodding hastily, Hans turned his face homeward and was gone.

Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 14, Hans, pg.. 98

To her mind, the poor peasant girl Gretel was not a human being, a God-created creature like herself—she was only something that meant poverty, rags, and dirt. Such as Gretel had no right to feel, to hope; above all, they should never cross the paths of their betters—that is, not in a disagreeable way. They could toil and labor for them at a respectful distance, even admire them, if they would do it humbly, but nothing more. If they rebel, put them down; if they suffer, “Don’t trouble me about it” was Rychie’s secret motto.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 15, Homes, pg.. 100

Rychie Korbes, being rich and powerful (in a schoolgirl way), had other followers besides Katrinka who were induced to share her opinions because they were either too careless or too cowardly to think for themselves.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 15, Homes, pg.. 102

A strange figure was approaching them. It was a small man dressed in black, with a short cloak. He wore a wig and a cocked hat from which a long crepe streamer was flying.

“Who comes here?” cried Ben. “What a queer-looking object.”

“That’s the aanspreeker,” said Lambert. “Someone is dead.”

“Is that the way men dress in mourning in this country?”

“Oh, no! The aanspreeker attends funerals, and it is his business, when anyone dies, to notify all the friends and relatives.”
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 16, Haarlem—The Boys Hear Voices, pg.. 107

I mean that here in Haarlem, whenever a boy is born, the parents have a red pincushion put out at the door. If our young friend had been a girl instead of a boy, the cushion would have been white. In some places they have much more fanciful affairs, all trimmed with lace, and even among the very poorest houses you will see a bit of ribbon or even a string tied on the door latch—”
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 16, Haarlem—The Boys Hear Voices, pg.. 108

What, the great Haarlem organ?” asked Ben. “That will be a treat indeed. I have often read of it, with its tremendous pipes, and its vox humana *{An organ stop which produces an effect resembling the human voice.} that sounds like a giant singing.”
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 16, Haarlem—The Boys Hear Voices, pg.. 109

Handel, the great composer, chanced to visit Haarlem and, of course, he at once hunted up this famous organ. He gained admittance and was playing upon it with all his might when the regular organist chanced to enter the building. The man stood awestruck. He was a good player himself, but he had never heard such music before. ‘Who is there?’ he cried. ‘If it is not an angel or the devil, it must be Handel!’ When he discovered that it WAS the great musician, he was still more mystified! ‘But how is this?’ he said. ‘You have done impossible things—no ten fingers on earth can play the passages you have given. Human fingers couldn’t control all the keys and stops!’ ‘I know it,’ said Handel coolly, ‘and for that reason, I was forced to strike some notes with the end of my nose.’
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 16, Haarlem—The Boys Hear Voices, pg.. 112

Certain it is that the first book he printed is kept by the city in a silver case wrapped in silk and is shown with great caution as a precious relic. It is said that he first conceived the idea of printing from cutting his name upon the bark of a tree and afterward pressing a piece of paper upon the characters.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 17, The Man With Four Heads, pg.. 114

He had FOUR heads,” answered Ben, laughing, “for he was a great physician, naturalist, botanist, and chemist. I am full of him just now, for I read his life a few weeks ago.”
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 17, The Man With Four Heads, pg.. 115

He was a poor friendless orphan at sixteen, but he was so persevering and industrious, so determined to gain knowledge, that he made his way, and in time became one of the most learned men of Europe.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 17, The Man With Four Heads, pg.. 116

Somebody in the house is ill, and to prevent a steady knocking at the door, the family write an account of the patient’s condition on a placard and hang it outside the door, for the benefit of inquiring friends—a very sensible custom, I’m sure.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 17, The Man With Four Heads, pg.. 116

Just at the last extremity, when the haughty lord felt that he could hold out no longer and was prepared to sell his life as dearly as possible, his lady appeared on the ramparts and offered to surrender everything, provided she was permitted to bring out, and retain, as much of her most precious household goods as she could carry upon her back. The promise was given, and the lady came forth from the gateway, bearing her husband upon her shoulders.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 18, Friends in Need, pg.. 120

Why should I doubt it?”

“Simply because no woman could do it—and if she could, she wouldn’t. That is my opinion.”

“And I believe that there are many who WOULD. That is, to save those they really cared for,” said Ludwig.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 18, Friends in Need, pg.. 120

These pretty fields would all be covered with the angry waters—Father always calls them the ANGRY waters. I suppose he thinks they are mad at him for keeping them out so long.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 18, Friends in Need, pg.. 124

Then he called on God for help. And the answer came, through a holy resolution: ‘I will stay here till morning.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 18, Friends in Need, pg.. 125

Why, there is not a child in Holland who does not know it. And, Ben, you may not think so, but that little boy represents the spirit of the whole country. Not a leak can show itself anywhere either in its politics, honor, or public safety, that a million fingers are not ready to stop it, at any cost.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 18, Friends in Need, pg.. 127

As for expecting him to skate anymore that day, the thing was impossible. In truth, by this time each boy began to entertain secret yearnings toward iceboats, and to avow a Spartan resolve not to desert Jacob.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 20, Jacob Poot Changes the Plan, pg.. 138

Half the boors here on the canal measure distance by the time it takes them to finish a pipe.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 20, Jacob Poot Changes the Plan, pg.. 140

One would think the captain and his band could have slept no more that night, but the mooring has not yet been found that can prevent youth and an easy conscience from drifting down the river of dreams. The boys were much too fatigued to let so slight a thing as capturing a robber bind them to wakefulness. They were soon in bed again, floating away to strange scenes made of familiar things.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 22, The Red Lion Becomes Dangerous, pg.. 158

So he is my brother, and yours too, Carl Schummel, for that matter,” answered Peter, looking into Carl’s eye. “We cannot say what we might have become under other circumstances. WE have been bolstered up from evil, since the hour we were born. A happy home and good parents might have made that man a fine fellow instead of what he is. God grant that the law may cure and not crush him!
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 23, Before the Court, pg.. 162

Meanwhile, as if to reward the citizens for allowing her to have her way for once, Nature departs from the invariable level, wearing gracefully the ornaments that have been reverently bestowed upon her.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 26, The Palace in the Wood, pg.. 180

I never realized before what a luxury such things are. Our lodgings at the Red Lion have made us appreciate our own homes.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 26, The Palace in the Wood, pg.. 181

Safe within the walls bloomed a Garden of Delight, where the flowers firmly believed it was summer, and a sparkling fountain was laughing merrily to itself because Jack Frost could not find it.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 27, The Merchant Prince and the Sister-Princess, pg.. 182

“I can read your thoughts, sweetheart.”

She looked up in playful defiance.

“Ah, now I am sure of them! You were thinking of those noblehearted women, but for whom Prussia might have fallen. I know it by that proud light in your eye.”

“The proud light in my eye plays me false, then,” she answered. “I had no such grand matter in my mind. To confess the simple truth, I was only thinking how lovely this necklace would be with my blue brocade.”

“So, so!” exclaimed the rather crestfallen spouse.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 27, The Merchant Prince and the Sister-Princess, pg. 187

I will not enter into the subject here, except to say that Ben—who had read of her struggles and wrongs and of the terrible retribution she had from time to time dealt forth—could scarcely tread a Holland town without mentally leaping horror-stricken over the bloody stepping-stones of its history.

Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 27, The Merchant Prince and the Sister-Princess, pg. 194

In Leyden his heart had swelled in sympathy as he thought of the long procession of scarred and famished creatures who after the siege, with Adrian van der Werf at their head, tottered to the great church to sing a glorious anthem because Leyden was free! He remembered that this was even before they had tasted the bread brought by the Dutch ships. They would praise God first, then eat.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 27, The Merchant Prince and the Sister-Princess, pg. 194

Ben was surprised at the noiseless way in which Dutch laborers do their work. Even around the warehouses and docks there was no bustle, no shouting from one to another. A certain twitch of the pipe, or turn of the head, or, at most, a raising of the hand, seemed to be all the signal necessary.

Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 28, Through the Hague, pg. 199

Entire loads of cheeses or herrings are pitched from cart or canalboat into the warehouses without a word; but the passerby must take his chance of being pelted, for a Dutchman seldom looks before or behind him while engaged at work.

Poor Jacob Poot, who seemed destined to bear all the mishaps of the journey, was knocked nearly breathless by a great cheese, which a fat Dutchman was throwing to a fellow laborer, but he recovered himself
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 28, Through the Hague, pg. 199

Ben felt, as he listened to their familiar music, that the Christian world is one, after all, however divided by sects and differences it may be. As the clock speaks everyone’s native language in whatever land it may strike the hour, so church bells are never foreign if our hearts but listen.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 29, A Day of Rest, pg. 204

Although the sermon was spoken slowly, Ben could understand little of what was said; but when the hymn came, he joined in with all his heart. A thousand voices lifted in love and praise offered a grander language than he could readily comprehend.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 29, A Day of Rest, pg. 206

There is an angel called Charity who would often save our hearts a great deal of trouble if we would but let her in.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 29, A Day of Rest, pg. 207

But the laws of inertia are stronger even than canal guards.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 30, Homeward Bound, pg. 209

What a goose I was, thought he, as the party left the Golden Eagle, to feel so sure that it was my mother. But she may be somebody’s mother, poor woman, for all that.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 31, Boys and Girls, pg. 215

She knew that something terrible and mysterious was taking place at this moment, something that had been too terrible and mysterious for even kind, good Hans to tell.
Then new thoughts came. Why had not Hans told her? It was a shame. It was HER father as well as his. She was no baby. She had once taken a sharp knife from the father’s hand. She had even drawn him away from the mother on that awful night when Hans, as big as he was, could not help her. Why, then, must she be treated like one who could do nothing? oh, how very still it was—how bitter, bitter cold!
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 33, Gretel and Hilda, pg. 229

“Why do you pray?” murmured the father, looking feebly from the bed as they rose. “Is it God’s day?”

Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 34, The Awakening, pg. 235

She had remained near the cottage until she heard Dame Brinker laugh, until she had heard Hans say, “Here I am, Father!” And then she had gone back to her lessons. What wonder that she missed them! How could she get a long string of Latin verbs by heart when her heart did not care a fig for them but would keep saying to itself, “Oh, I am so glad! I am so glad!”
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 34, The Awakening, pg. 237

Persons who had never before cared for the Brinkers, or even mentioned them, except with a contemptuous sneer or a shrug of pretended pity, now became singularly familiar with every point of their history. There was no end to the number of ridiculous stories that were flying about.

Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 35, Bones and Tongues, pg. 239

Strange that the visit of their good benefactor should have left a cloud, yet so it was.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 36, A New Alarm, pg. 243

Then came other thoughts—thoughts that made his heart thump heavily and his cheeks burn with a new shame. It is BEGGING, to say the least. Not one of the Brinkers has ever been a beggar. Shall I be the first? Shall my poor father just coming back into life learn that his family has asked for charity—he, always so wise and thrifty? “No,” cried Hans aloud, “better a thousand times to part with the watch.”
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 36, A New Alarm, pg. 245

What wonder that he looked about him like one bewildered. “Little Hans” had just been almost carrying him. “The baby” was over four feet long and was demurely brushing up the hearth with a bundle of willow wisps. Meitje, the vrouw, winsome and fair as ever, had gained at least fifty pounds in what seemed to him a few hours. She also had some new lines in her face that puzzled him. The only familiar things in the room were the pine table that he had made before he was married, the Bible upon the shelf, and the cupboard in the corner.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 37, The Father’s Return, pg. 248

“Can the youngsters read and cipher, Meitje?”

“You should hear them!” she answered proudly. “They can run through a book while I mop the floor. Hans there is as happy over a page of big words as a rabbit in a cabbage patch; as for ciphering—”
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 37, The Father’s Return, pg. 251

…he did not hear Annie murmur, “I wish I had not been so rude. Poor, brave Hans. What a noble boy he is!” And as Annie skated homeward, filled with pleasant thoughts, she did not hear Hans say, “I grumbled like a bear. But bless her! Some girls are like angels!”

Perhaps it was all for the best. One cannot be expected to know everything that is going on around the world.
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 39, Glimpses, pg. 261

“Are you in trouble, mynheer?”

“Ah, Hans, that you? Yes, my fun is over. I tried to tighten my strap—to make a new hole—and this botheration of a knife has cut it nearly in two.”

“Mynheer,” said Hans, at the same time pulling off a skate, “you must use my strap!”

“Not I, indeed, Hans Brinker,” cried Peter, looking up, “though I thank you warmly. Go to your post, my friend, the bugle will be sounding in another minute.”

“Mynheer,” pleaded Hans in a husky voice, “you have called me your friend. Take this strap—quick!

Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 44, The Race, pg. 305

“Why, the other calling is so much better,” answered Hans, “so much nobler. I think, mynheer,” he added with enthusiasm, “that to be a surgeon, to cure the sick and crippled, to save human life, to be able to do what you have done for my father, is the grandest thing on earth.”

Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 47, Broad Sunshine, pg. 323

“It is an ugly business, boy, this surgery,” said the doctor, still frowning at Hans. “It requires great patience, self-denial, and perseverance.”
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, chapter 47, Broad Sunshine, pg. 323