194 WINTER SKETCHES. 



to ornamental tiles rather than to building 

 material. Of these many were brought over, 

 and to this day they may be seen bordering 

 the great fireplaces, where for generations the 

 catechisms and texts of instruction painted 

 upon them have served the purpose of the 

 modern Sunday-school. There, too, are still 

 the barns modelled like Noah's Ark bottom up, 

 low studded like the houses, for as land was 

 cheaper than it now is in Broadway, the heavy- 

 moulded farmers did not care to stretch their 

 legs needlessly in going up-stairs or to weary 

 their arms in pitching hay. 



Everything but the landscape resembles 

 Holland. That is in all its aspects totally 

 different, for Bergen County, at least in its 

 northern part, is not spread over a level, but 

 runs from one hilltop to another. In South 

 Bergen, where there are plenty of swamps, the 

 Dutchman might have felt at home, but on his 

 first coming here he must indeed have consid- 

 ered himself a pilgrim in a strange land. How 

 did he get here, anyway? Did he climb over 

 the Palisades, or did he drift with the tide up 

 the Hackensack ? What was he to do without 

 canals ? I have noticed that in Java, where 

 there are salubrious hills and mountains easily 



