Rollo in Holland Part 6

"You and I," said Mr. George, "will go off to-morrow morning by the first train, and go straight to Holland as fast as we can, so as to get out of their way."

"Well," said Rollo. "Though I don't care much about it either way."

Mr. George, however, carried his plan into effect. The next day they went to Antwerp; and on the day following they crossed the Belgian frontier, and entered Holland.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

CHAPTER IV.

ENTERING HOLLAND.

Rollo and Mr. George went into Holland by the railway. It was a long time before Rollo learned that in travelling from one European country to another, he was not to expect any visible line of demarcation to show the frontier. Boys at school, in studying the shape and conformation of different countries on the map, and seeing them marked by distinct colored boundaries, are very apt to imagine that they will see something, when travelling from one country to another, to show them by visible signs when they pa.s.s the frontier.

But there is nothing of the kind. The green fields, the groves, the farmhouse, the succession of villages continues unchanged as you travel, so that, as you whirl along in the railway carriage, there is nothing to warn you of the change, except the custom house stations, where the pa.s.sports of travellers are called for, and the baggage is examined.

"Uncle George," said Rollo, after looking out of the window at a place where the train stopped, twenty or thirty miles from Antwerp, "I think we are coming to the frontier."

"Why so?" asked Mr. George.

"Because the Belgian custom house is at this station, and the next will be the Dutch custom house."

Rollo knew that this was the Belgian custom house by seeing the word DOUANE over one of the doors of the station, and under it the words VISITE DES BAGAGES, which means _examination of baggage_. There were besides a great many soldiers standing about, which was another indication.

"How do you know that it is the Belgian custom house?" asked Mr. George.

"Because all these soldiers are in the Belgian uniform," said he. "I know the Belgian uniform. I don't know the Dutch uniform, but I suppose I shall see it at the next station."

Rollo was perfectly right in his calculations. The last station on the line of the railway in Belgium was the frontier station for Belgium, and here travellers, coming from Holland, were called upon to show their pa.s.sports, and to have their baggage examined. In the same manner the first station beyond, which was the first one in Holland, was the frontier station for that country, and there pa.s.sengers going from Belgium into Holland were stopped and examined in the same way.

After going on a few miles from the Belgium station, the whistle blew and the train began to stop.

"Here we are!" said Rollo.

"Yes," said Mr. George; "and now comes the time of trial for the musical box."

Rollo had bought a musical box at Antwerp, and he had some fears lest he might be obliged to pay a duty upon it, in going into Holland. Mr.

George had told him that he thought there was some danger, but Rollo concluded that he would take the risk.

"They have no business to make me pay duty upon it," said he to Mr.

George.

"Why not?" asked Mr. George.

"Because it is not for merchandise," said Rollo. "It is not for sale. I have bought it for my own use alone."

"That has nothing to do with it," said Mr. George.

"Yes it has, a great deal to do with it," replied Rollo.

There might have been quite a spirited discussion between Mr. George and Rollo, on this old and knotty question, over which tourists in Europe are continually stumbling, had not the train stopped. The moment that the motion ceased, the doors of all the carriages were opened, and a man pa.s.sed along the line calling out in French,--

"Gentlemen and ladies will all descend here, for the examination of pa.s.sports and baggage."

Mr. George and Rollo had no baggage, except a valise which they carried with them in the carriage. Mr. George took this valise up and stepped down upon the platform.

"Now, Rollo," said Mr. George, "if they find your musical box and charge duty upon it, pay it like a man."

"Yes," said Rollo, "I will."

"And don't get up a quarrel with the custom house officer on the subject," continued Mr. George, "for he has the whole military force of the kingdom of Holland at his command, and what he says is to be done, in this territory, must be done."

So saying, Mr. George, valise in hand, followed the crowd of pa.s.sengers through a door, over which was inscribed the Dutch word for baggage. In the centre of this room there was a sort of low counter, enclosing a sort of oblong square. Within the square were a number of custom house officers, ready to examine the baggage which the porters and the pa.s.sengers were bringing in, and laying upon the counter, all around the four sides of the square.

Mr. George brought up his valise, and placed it on the counter. A custom house officer, who had just examined and marked some other parcels, turned to Mr. George's just as he had unlocked and opened it.

"Have you any thing to declare?" said the officer.

"Nothing, sir," said Mr. George.

The officer immediately shut the valise, and marked it on the back with a piece of chalk, and Mr. George locked it and took it away.

"Are you through?" asked Rollo.

"Yes," said Mr. George.

Mr. George then took the valise and followed a crowd of pa.s.sengers, who were going through a door at the end of the room opposite to where they came in. There was an officer in uniform on each side of this door.

These officers examined every bag, valise, or parcel that the pa.s.sengers had in their hands, to see if they had been marked by the examiners, and as fast as they found that they were marked, they let them pa.s.s.

Following this company, Mr. George and Rollo came soon to another small room, where a man was sitting behind a desk, examining the pa.s.sports of the pa.s.sengers and stamping them. Mr. George waited a moment until it came his turn, and then handed his pa.s.sport too. The officer looked at it, and then stamped an impression from a sort of seal on one corner of it. He also wrote Mr. George's and Rollo's name in a big book, copying them for this purpose from the pa.s.sport.

He then handed the pa.s.sport back again, and Mr. George and Rollo went out, pa.s.sing by a soldier who guarded the door. They found themselves now on the railway platform.

"Now," said Rollo, "I suppose that we may go and take our seats again."

"Yes," said Mr. George. "We are fairly entered within the dominions of his majesty the king of Holland."

"And no duty to pay on my music box," said Rollo.

Rollo took a seat by a window where he could look out as the train went on, and see, as he said, how Holland looked. The country was one immense and boundless plain, and there were no fences or other close enclosures of any kind. And yet the face of it was so endlessly varied with rows of trees, groves, farm houses, gardens, wind mills, roads, and other elements of rural scenery, that Rollo found it extremely beautiful. The fields were very green where gra.s.s was growing, and the foliage of the trees, and of the little ornamental hedges that were seen here and there adorning the grounds of the farm houses, was very rich and full. As Rollo looked out at the window, a continued succession of the most bright and beautiful pictures pa.s.sed rapidly before his eyes, like those of a gayly painted panorama, and they all called forth from him continually repeated exclamations of delight. Mr. George sat at his window enjoying the scene perhaps quite as much as Rollo did, though he was much less ardent in expressing his admiration.

"See these roads, uncle George," said Rollo; "they run along on the tops of the embankment like railroads. Are those dikes?"

"No," said Mr. George. "The dikes are built along the margin of the sea, and along the banks of rivers and ca.n.a.ls, to take the water out. These are embankments for the roads, to raise them up and keep them dry."