"
"Oh dear," Kat said, "what a leaky country!"
She ran near the mill and let the wind from the fans blow her
hair and the white wings on her cap.
As the great fans swung near the ground, Kit jumped up and caught
hold of one. It lifted him right off the ground as it swung
around, and in a minute he was dangling high in the air.
"Jump, jump, quick," shouted Father Vedder.
Kit let go and dropped to the ground just in time. In another
minute he would have been carried clear over.
As it was, he sat down very hard on the ground, and had to have
the dirt brushed off of his Sunday clothes.
"I am surprised at you," Father Vedder said, while he brushed
him. "You are too small to swing on windmills, and besides it is
the Sabbath day. Don't you ever do it again until you are big
enough to be called Christopher!"
Sitting down so hard in the dirt had hurt Kit a little bit, and
scared him a good deal, so he said, "No, father."
Then they walked all around the mill. They peeped inside a door
which was open, and saw the pumps working away.
"Yes," said Father Vedder, "it is nip and tuck between wind and
water in Holland. Let us sit down here on the canal bank, in the
sunshine, and I will tell you what hard work has to be done to
keep this good land of ours. And it is a good land! We should be
thankful for it! Just see the rich green meadows over there, with
the cows grazing in them!" Father Vedder pointed to the
beautiful fields across the canal.
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