Supplementary · Part 2

to tell him about his walk along the dike and about the sun and the flowers and the ships far out at sea. Then 10th - - as he thought of his visit to the poor blind man who had so few pleasures and was always so glad to see him. Suddenly he noticed that the sun was setting, and that it was growing dark. “Mother will be watching for me,” he thought, and he began to run toward home. Just then he heard a noise. It was the sound of trickling water! He stopped and looked down. There was a small hole in the dike, through which a tiny stream was flowing, Any child in Holland is frightened at the thought of a leak in the dike. Peter understood the danger at once. If the water ran through a little hole it would soon make a larger one, and the whole country would be flooded. In a moment he saw what he must do. Throwing away his flowers, he climbed down the side of the dike and thrust his finger into the tiny hole. The flowing of the water was stopped! “Oho!” he said to himself. “The angry waters must stay back now. I can keep them back with my finger. Holland shall not be drowned while I am here.” This was all very well at first, but soon it grew dark and cold. The little fellow shouted and screamed. “Come here; come here,” he called. But no one heard him; no one came to help him. It grew still colder, and his arm ached, and began to grow stiff and numb . He shouted again. “Will no one come? Mother! Mother!” But his mother had looked anxiously along the dike road many times since sunset for her little boy, and now she had closed and locked the cottage door, thinking that Peter was spending the night with his blind friend, and that she would scold him in the morning for staying away from home without permission. Peter tried to whistle, but his teeth chattered with