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    The Dutch Twins
    The Dutch Twins
    The Dutch Twins
    Ebook126 pages1 hour

    The Dutch Twins

    By Lucy Fitch Perkins

    4/5

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateSep 1, 1968

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    Reviews for The Dutch Twins

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    • 5/5
      What a treat! I remember this fondly from when I read it aged 7 (the image of tiny plump Dutch children sleeping in cupboards stayed with me, but little else), and am thrilled that it's better than I remember: funny, sly, gentle, kind-hearted, and (now that I know more about the Netherlands and my Dutch heritage) very accurate.

      She nails how small children think (or don't) and behave, which I wouldn't have realised on first reading when young. (Good authors write about how people are, poor authors write about how characters act in books, which is not the same thing, and the reason why poorly-written books age badly as tastes change, but the great writers are still with us, and still ring true.)

      There are moments throughout the book demonstrating this. Here's a section where Kit and Kat are disappointed that they might miss out on a milk wagon ride, due to wearing their best clothes:

      Grandmother went to the press and brought out two aprons. One was a very small apron. It woudn't reach to Kit's knees ... "This was your Uncle Jan's when he was a little boy," she said. "It's pretty small, but it will help some." Kit wished that Uncle Jan had taken it with him when he went to America, but he didn't say so.

      Then Grandmother took another apron out of the press. It looked as if it had been there a long time. "Kat, you must wear this," she said. "It was your mother's when she was a little girl."

      Now, this apron was all faded, and it had patches on it of different kinds of cloth. Kat looked at her best dress. Then she looked at the apron. Then she thought about the milk cart. She wondered if she wanted to go in the milk cart badly enough to wear that apron over her Sunday dress! She stuck her finger in her mouth and looked sidewise at Grandmother Winkle.

      Grandmother didn't say a word. She just looked firm and held up the apron. Very soon Kat came slowly— very slowly— and Grandmother buttoned the apron up behind, and that was the end of that.

      One reviewer, I think unfairly, worried about early statements that boys are better than girls at certain things, but Lucy Fitch Perkins clearly doesn't believe it herself, and often shows Kat's good sense compared to Kit's with moments like these, througout the book:

      "What do you suppose the Vink is?" said Kat to Kit. "I think it is something like a church," said Kit. "You don't know what a Vink is, so there," said Kat. "I think it's something to eat." Then Kit changed the subject.

      I'm half-Dutch, so particularly sought this out as a child, but it's so good that I'm now going to look for the others by her, she's terrific.

      (Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve!
    • 4/5
      1001 CBYMRBYGUKit and Kat are twins. They live in Holland with their mother and father. Kit and Kat are not their real names; their real names are Katrina and Christopher, but they will not be called Katrina and Christopher until they are four and a half feet tall and that will be a long time from now.So goes this little collection of stories about the two little Dutch twins. They go fishing with their father on the dyke and drive a tiny milk cart with their grandfather and sell cabbages with their father and help their mother clean their house and wait for Saint Nicholas to come to their house and bring candies and cakes. Simple little stories, filled with little details about windmills and dykes and wooden shoes and Dutch church. Such lovely little stories that I read all 191 pages at one sitting. Because the stories are so old, they are available online for free. A little research about author Lucy Fitch Perkins reveals that she wrote a whole series of twin books, including Mexican Twins, French Twins, and even Eskimo Twins."I told you to go slowly," said Grandfather. "Now look at the cart, and see what you've done by not minding,—spoiled your best clothes and Kat's, and spilled the milk! Go back to Grandmother." "But I couldn't mind twice at one time," said Kit. "I was minding about not letting go." "Oh dear," sobbed Kat, "I wish we were four and a half feet high now! If we were, this never would have happened."

    Book preview

    The Dutch Twins - Lucy Fitch Perkins

    The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Dutch Twins, by Lucy Fitch Perkins

    This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

    almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

    re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

    with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

    Title: The Dutch Twins

    Author: Lucy Fitch Perkins

    Posting Date: March 10, 2009 [EBook #4012]

    Release Date: May, 2003

    Language: English

    *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DUTCH TWINS ***

    Produced by Lynn Hill. Dedicated to Luana Rodriquez. HTML

    version by Al Haines.

    This book belongs to Lawrence and other children

    THE DUTCH TWINS

    By

    Lucy Fitch Perkins

    ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR

    Geographical Series

    THE DUTCH TWINS PRIMER. Grade I.

    THE DUTCH TWINS. Grade III.

    THE ESKIMO TWINS. Grade II.

    THE JAPANESE TWINS. Grade IV.

    THE SWISS TWINS. Grade IV.

    THE IRISH TWINS. Grade V.

    THE ITALIAN TWINS. Grades V and VI.

    THE SCOTCH TWINS. Grades V and VI.

    THE MEXICAN TWINS. Grade VI.

    THE BELGIAN TWINS. Grade VI.

    THE FRENCH TWINS. Grade VII.

    Historical Series

    THE CAVE TWINS. Grade IV.

    THE SPARTAN TWINS. Grades V-VI.

    THE PURITAN TWINS. Grades VI-VII.

    CONTENTS

    THE DUTCH TWINS

    KIT AND KAT

    This is a picture of Kit and Kat. They are Twins, and they live in Holland. Kit is the boy, and Kat is the girl.

    Of course their real names are not Kit and Kat at all. Their real names are Christopher and Katrina. But you can see for yourself that such long names as that would never in the world fit such a short pair of Twins. So the Twins' Mother, Vrouw Vedder, said,

    They cannot be called Christopher and Katrina until they are four and a half feet high.

    Now it takes a long time to grow four and a half feet of Boy and Girl. You know, chickens and puppies and colts and kittens always grow up much faster than twins. Kit and Kat ate a great many breakfasts and dinners and suppers, and played a great many plays, and had a great many happy days while they were growing up to their names. I will tell you about some of them.

    I.

    THE DAY THEY WENT FISHING

    One summer morning, very early, Vrouw Vedder opened the door of her little Dutch kitchen and stepped out.

    She looked across the road which ran by the house, across the canal on the other side, across the level green fields that lay beyond, clear to the blue rim of the world, where the sky touches the earth. The sky was very blue; and the great, round, shining face of the sun was just peering over the tops of the trees, as she looked out.

    Vrouw Vedder listened. The roosters in the barnyard were crowing, the ducks in the canal were quacking, and all the little birds in the fields were singing for joy. Vrouw Vedder hummed a slow little tune of her own, as she went back into her kitchen.

    Kit and Kat were still asleep in their little cupboard bed. She gave them each a kiss. The Twins opened their eyes and sat up.

    O Kit and Kat, said Vrouw Vedder, the sun is up, the birds are all awake and singing, and Grandfather is going fishing to-day. If you will hurry, you may go with him! He is coming at six o'clock; so pop out of bed and get dressed. I will put some lunch for you in the yellow basket, and you may dig worms for bait in the garden. Only be sure not to step on the young cabbages that Father planted.

    Kit and Kat bounced out of bed in a minute. Their mother helped them put on their clothes and new wooden shoes. Then she gave them each a bowl of bread and milk for their breakfast. They ate it sitting on the kitchen doorstep.

    This is a picture of Kit and Kat digging worms. You see they did just as their mother said, and did not step on the young cabbages. They sat on them, instead. But that was an accident.

    Kit dug the worms, and Kat put them into a basket, with some earth in it to make them feel at home.

    When Grandfather came, he brought a large fishing-rod for himself and two little ones for the Twins. There was a little hook on the end of each line.

    Vrouw Vedder kissed Kit and Kat good-bye.

    Mind Grandfather, and don't fall into the water, she said.

    Grandfather and the Twins started off together down the long road beside the canal.

    The house where the Twins lived was right beside the canal. Their father was a gardener, and his beautiful rows of cabbages and beets and onions stretched in long lines across the level fields by the roadside.

    Grandfather lived in a large town, a little way beyond the farm where the Twins lived. He did not often have a holiday, because he carried milk to the doors of the people in the town, every morning early. Sometime I will tell you how he did it; but I must not tell you now, because if I do, I can't tell you about their going fishing.

    This morning, Grandfather carried his rod and the lunch-basket. Kit and Kat carried the basket of worms between them, and their rods over their shoulders, and they were all three very happy.

    They walked along ever so far, beside the canal. Then they turned to the left and walked along a path that ran from the canal across the green fields to what looked like a hill.

    But it wasn't a hill at all, really, because there aren't any hills in Holland. It was a long, long wall of earth, very high—oh, as high as a house, or even higher! And it had sloping sides.

    There is such a wall of earth all around the country of Holland, where the Twins live. There has to be a wall, because the sea is higher than the land. If there were no walls to shut out the sea, the whole country would be covered with water; and if that were so, then there wouldn't be any Holland, or any Holland Twins, or any story. So you see it was very lucky for the Twins that the wall was there. They called it a dyke.

    Grandfather and Kit and Kat climbed the dyke. When they reached the top, they sat down a few minutes to rest and look at the great blue sea. Grandfather sat in the middle, with Kit on one side, and Kat on the other; and the basket of worms and the basket of lunch were there, too.

    They

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