her hands with delight, "oh! Hans, was it for nothing the stork settled on our roof last summer? Do you remember how the mother said it would bring us luck, and how she cried when Janzoon Kolp shot him? And she said it would bring him trouble. But the luck has come to us at last! Now, Hans, if mother sends us to town to-morrow you can buy the skates in the market place."
Hans shook his head. "The young lady would have given us the money to buy skates; but if I earn it, Gretel, it shall be spent for wool. You must have a warm jacket.".
"Oh!" cried Gretel, in real dismay, "not buy the skates! Why I am not often cold! Mother says the blood runs up and down in poor children's veins humming 'I must keep 'em warm! I must keep 'em warm.'
"Oh, Hans," she continued with something like a sob, "don't say you wont buy the skates, it makes me feel just like crying—besides, I want to be cold—I mean I'm real, awful warm—so now!"
Hans looked up hurriedly. He had a true Dutch horror of tears, or emotion of any kind, and, most of all, he dreaded to see his sister's blue eyes overflowing.
"Now mind," cried Gretel, seeing her advantage, "I'll feel awful if you give up the skates. I don't want them. I'm not such a stingy as that; but I want you to have them, and then when I get bigger they'll do for me—oh-h—count the pieces, Hans. Did ever you see so many!"
Hans turned the money thoughtfully in his palm. Never in all his life, had he longed so intensely for a pair of skates, for he had known of the race and had,
