4 DUTCH BULBS AND GARDENS 



within twenty minutes of the scheduled time of a 

 train's coming. As the trains do not invariably 

 keep time, there are occasionally long waits for the 

 steamers, which, being privately owned, wait the 

 good pleasure of the State-owned railways. But 

 it does not very much matter, there is the better 

 chance to look around and see the country, which 

 is so very flat here that there is a great deal of it 

 to be seen ; and so wide and peaceful that it puts 

 to rest the sense of hurry. One who goes to the 

 bulb gardens does well to put that sense to rest, 

 for, seen hastily, run through in a few hours or a 

 day at most, they produce little but an impression 

 of sheets of gorgeous colour, which might possibly 

 have been more beautiful had they been otherwise 

 arranged. Time is wanted to see them, the 

 leisureliness which regards them as gardens rather 

 than as so many acres of scarlet, blue, or white, and 

 the opportunity of knowing a few of the flowers 

 individually. It is for this reason, among others, 

 and as a suitable preparation to the leisurely observa- 

 tion, that a man does well to go to the gardens the 

 way the bulbs come ; and does well to possess his 

 soul in patience, while the Dutch captain attends 

 the pleasure of the man who minds the bridge, and 

 while the steamer creeps up to Amsterdam. 



