Polly and Her Friends Abroad Part 22

remarked Mr. Fabian. "There isn't much of interest to us, here, and I don't believe we can pick up any 'old bits' in the city. Bargains in antiques are more readily found in the country places."

So, late the following morning, they started for Delft; along the road Mr. Fabian stopped several times and secured a few fine pieces of old Delftware.

The tourists remained at The Hague that night. It was a quaint, beautiful old place founded in the year 1250. The artistic-roofed houses, the funny dormer windows, the varied and picture-like gables of the buildings which were placed irregularly on either side of the narrow crooked streets, provided interesting scenes that the girls eagerly captured in the camera.

At an antique shop, on a side street not much wider than a country-lane, the girls found several old door-knockers with the ancient dates stamped in the metal. A great ma.s.sive lock and key were bought by Mr. Fabian, and Dodo got an iron lantern.

Leaving The Hague, the cars drove along beautiful country roads, with low white-washed cottages having green wooden shutters at the windows, standing prim and pure beside the way. Everything was so clean and neat, though the owners seemed poor, that it was remarked by the girls.

"When you compare these peasants and their spotless homes, to the filth and shiftlessness of the peasants in Ireland, you cannot help but wonder what causes the vast difference in living," said Polly.

"It is not poverty alone that does this, Polly," said Mrs. Fabian. "One must go way back and seek deep for the causation of such conditions."

The girls did not understand what she meant, then, but they could not help but remember her words later, when they began to question political and national problems. Then they understood.

At Leyden Mr. Fabian showed the girls the university that is erected on the ground where the Pilgrims landed after their flight from England, and before their historic sailing for America. And at Haarlem, the two girls Polly and Eleanor, bought a lot of healthy bulbs to be sent home for planting in the Spring. As Haarlem is the center of the bulb-growing industry of Holland, it displayed more tulips to the square foot, than the girls had ever thought it possible to grow.

That evening the two cars entered Amsterdam. The hotel was good, and the stop-over most welcome, for the autoists were tired of the continuous ride for several days, resting only at night.

The Count managed to get in telephonic connection with Paris, that night, and immediately afterwards, he seemed ill at ease. So much so, that he finally left the others and they saw him no more that evening.

Mrs. Alexander showed her disappointment at this unexpected action of her charming Count and refused to be condoled by anyone else.

At breakfast in the morning, Count Chalmys announced his unexpected desertion of the touring party. "I find I have to fly at once to my domain in Northern Italy, my dear friends. A most unexpected business affair there demands my presence. Ah, such is the tormented life of a land-owner. He can never enjoy freedom, but must always be at the beck and call of others."

"Good gracious, Count! Won't you join us again, as soon as you settle this business in Italy?" asked Mrs. Alexander, anxiously.

"I trust I may, dear lady. But _you_ must surely visit me at my palace, when you tour Italy," returned the gallant Count. Then he gave minute directions to Mr. Fabian how they might reach his estates.

After Count Chalmys had gone the tourists had Mrs. Alexander to entertain; before this she had devoted her entire time to the Count as he was her guest in the small car. Now she insisted upon the girls taking turns to ride in her car, and this proved to be unappreciated by the three who wished to be with Mr. Fabian in order to hear his opinions on the places they pa.s.sed. Finally Nancy offered to devote her attention to Dodo's mother until they could discover a new "t.i.tle" to occupy her heart and mind and roadster.

While in Amsterdam they visited an old-fashioned coffee-shop with living-quarters back of it. When Mr. Fabian explained to the good woman who served, that his girls were decorators from America, and they wished to see the tiles he had heard of in her living-room, she smiled graciously and led the way to the rear rooms.

"Oh Nolla! Look at the funny little ladders one has to climb to reach the beds!" cried Polly, laughingly, as she pointed out the built-in beds about five feet above the floor.

"I should think they'd smother-all shut up back of those curtains, at night," remarked Dodo.

"And not a bit of ventilation that can get in any other way," added Eleanor.

The hostess comprehended something of what was said, and she laughingly shrugged her plump shoulders and pointed to her two "younkers" who were as fat and rosy as Baldwin apples. Mr. Fabian was admiring the wonderful dado of tiles, that ran about the room from the floor to a height of four feet. Each tile presented a scene of Holland, and they were so set that a white tile alternated with a Delft blue one, making the whole pattern very effective. The windows were placed above the dado, thus being four feet above the floor. But instead of high narrow windows, they were square, or low and long, and opened in cas.e.m.e.nt style.

While Mr. Fabian was conversing with the woman about old tiles and Dutch furniture, Polly spied a corner cupboard. She beckoned Eleanor over to it, and the two immediately began examining the old blue ware in the china-closet.

Dodo heard them and hurried over, and that drew Mr. Fabian's attention to them, also. His hostess smiled, and led him across the large room to the cupboard.

Before the collectors left that room, they had acquired some fine old Delft pieces, and Mr. Fabian hugged an antique jug that he was not sure of, but its markings would prove its great age as soon as he could trace it, he was sure.

Mr. Alexander, who had been almost ignored during the past few days, excepting at night when they stopped at different towns for rest, now said: "Would you like to reach Cologne tonight? I figger we can do it easily, onless you want to stop anywhere?"

"The only place I want to stop and give the girls a peep into a porcelain factory, is at Bonn. But that is on the other side of Cologne; so let her go, if you like," returned Mr. Fabian.

The roads, however, were too bad for speeding, and they had to be content with reaching Arnheim for the night. The next day they reached Cologne, but drove on to Bonn, as Mr. Fabian had planned. In the afternoon they reached Coblentz where the great Byzantine Cathedral was visited and pictures taken of it. The next day, on the trip southward, along the Rhine, were many picturesque castles and fortresses which made splendid scenes for the camera.

Mr. Fabian wished to conduct the girls from Frankfort to Nurnberg, a famous old mediaeval city with unique houses still to be seen, although they were built hundreds of years ago. But the girls had no desire to visit any German cities, they said.

"But it is a famous place," argued Mr. Fabian. "It was the very first town in Germany to embrace Christianity."

"Maybe so, but later, they clearly demonstrated to the world that they never understood the fundamentals of Christianity," retorted Eleanor.

"Well aside from that, Nurnberg is the place where white paper was first invented," continued Mr. Fabian.

"I've heard said that an _American_ invented white paper and the German who put up the money for the experiment, stole the formulae," declared Polly.

"I never heard _that_, but surely you can't contradict me when I say that sulphur matches first came to life there. They are a great convenience in the home and save us a lot of trouble; and the Germans discovered that use for sulphur," continued Mr. Fabian.

"Maybe the world has _now_ discovered that the Germans might have saved us a lot of trouble if they had used the sulphur for self-extinction purposes," snapped Eleanor, who was a partisan for the Allies.

Her companions refused to laugh at her remark although they wanted to; but Polly, who was more lenient to an enemy, said: "I never can understand how it is that the Germans always invent such wonderful things."

"Yes, Prof., especially as we Yanks are just as brainy and capable; yet you seldom hear of an American inventing such things," added Dodo.

"Oh yes, we do, Dodo," returned Mr. Fabian. "But the German nation push a thing with national zeal and make money out of the world, for themselves. America generally keeps quiet about her patents and uses them for her own benefit."

"But there is a deeper causation for all this material inventiveness, too," added Mrs. Fabian. "We must never lose sight of the fact that America is the cradle of Freedom where Eternal Truth lifted its banner.

Whereas Germany brought forth only the material emblems of brain and earthly power, the New World has brought forth the Hope of Heaven-freedom in every sense of the word."

CHAPTER X-A DANGEROUS Pa.s.s ON THE ALPS

Mr. Alexander drove through the Alsatian country with keen interest, for the costumes and beauty of the peasants were so attractive that the tourists liked to watch them and take snapshots of picturesque groups.

Mr. Fabian directed Mr. Alexander to take the road to Lyons as he wished to have the girls visit the factories where silk, velvet and velour were manufactured. Nancy Fabian had wearied of Mrs. Alexander's endless chatter about her million and the Count, and why anyone like the Osgoods should lift their heads when they were so poor and proud!

So the day the two cars started for the Alps, (Mr. Alexander hoping to cross them and stop over-night on the other side,) Mrs. Fabian took her place beside Mrs. Alexander, in the roadster. The small car usually trailed the seven-pa.s.senger car, but this day the order was accidentally changed, while climbing the mountains.

It was rough travelling at the best, but the higher the cars climbed the rougher became the road, and at last the steep trail narrowed so that it was almost impossible to pa.s.s another car on the same roadway.

But the views were so wonderful and the mountains so majestic, that everyone was silent and deeply impressed. The cars ascended one peak after another, and as each summit was reached the autoists sat and marvelled at the height of the mountain and wondered at the views. Then they would seem to drop sheer down again to the valley between the two peaks. This mode of travelling continued for a long rime, until one of the highest peaks of the Alps towered before them. This cloud-piercing mountain-top once pa.s.sed over, they would reach the border line of Italy and begin descending the range again.

Mrs. Alexander was a fairly good driver, but she had more a.s.surance in her ability than her understanding actually warranted. She was talking nonsensically, as usual, with half her mind on the road and the other half interested in what she was picturing to her companion, when she turned a sharp curve in the road.

"Oh-OH!" she screamed, as she tried to use the emergency brake and turn the wheel to avoid a great boulder which had rolled down upon the path.

But she had not held the machine sufficiently in hand to instantly benefit her, when the occasion unexpectedly arose that needed presence of mind. Consequently the new roadster struck the rock with enough force to crush in the radiator and headlights. The second car came around the curve, the pa.s.sengers having heard the shrill scream and looking fearfully for the catastrophe they believed to have happened to the two women.

The shock of the collision had thrown Mrs. Alexander across the wheel while her head broke the wind-shield; but Mrs. Fabian had instantly clutched the side and back of the seat and was only badly shaken.

Everyone in the touring car jumped out and rushed over to see if either of the ladies had been seriously hurt. Mrs. Alexander groaned and held her side but could not speak.