Canals of Amsterdam



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Three days ago, while walking along the canals in Amsterdam, I remembered reading a children’s novel Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates.  Within the narrative there is a tale of a Dutch boy who saved his country by putting his finger in a leaking dike.  The fable goes that the boy stayed through a bitter cold night until he was found the next morning by the people of his village.  I was surprised to learn that this is an American tale not widely known in Holland … the American author Mary Mapes Dodge wrote the story in 1865.