A little farther inland the surface
seems to have been marshy, but has been drained by ditches across the
fields and along the roadside; and the fields are embanked on all sides
with parapets of earth which appear as if intended to keep out
inundations. In fact, Holland itself cannot be more completely on a
level with the sea. The only dwellings are the old, whitewashed stone
cottages, with thatched roofs, on the brown straw of which grow various
weeds and mosses, brightening it with green patches, and sprouting along
the ridgepole,--the homeliest hovels that ever mortals lived in, and
which they share with pigs and cows at one end. Hens, too, run in and
out of the door. One or two of these hovels bore signs, "Licensed to
sell beer, ale, and tobacco," and generally there were an old woman and
some children visible. In all cases there was a ditch, full of water,
close at hand, stagnant, and often quite covered with a growth of
water-weeds,--very unwholesome, one would think, in the neighborhood of a
dwelling; and, in truth, the children and grown people did look pale.
In the fields, along the roadside, men and women were harvesting their
carrots and other root-crops, especially digging potatoes,--the
pleasantest of all farm labor, in my opinion, there being such a
continual interest in opening the treasures of each hill. As I went on,
the country began to get almost imperceptibly less flat, and there was
some little appearance of trees.
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