ON GETTING THERE 27 



Jan when he came back from prison, and no 

 one else (but the pastor) would give him a 

 helping hand. These were the things the pastor 

 always knew — Blessings on the folk who always 

 know the best of us, and expect it, too ! 



But this is not concerning Dutch bulb fields, 

 it has floated rather far from the subject, like 

 the little canal boat. Yet in a way it concerns 

 them, for to appreciate the flowers, and not 

 only to see them as so many streaks of colour 

 or so many acres of blossoming roots, it is 

 perhaps well to know something of the life 

 and ways of the people who grow them — a 

 people who have been the greatest gardeners, 

 and some of the greatest sea -carriers and col- 

 lectors of the world for 400 years ; who, with 

 much that is new, have kept a good deal that 

 is old, and who are perhaps less like what we are 

 than what we used to be. 



