WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
Windmills and wooden shoes cover

Windmills and wooden shoes

Chapter 14: KATRINA’S DUCKS
Open in WeRead

About This Book

The narrative follows Dutch siblings Jan and Katrina and their friends as they carry out everyday life in a small Dutch community: chores like milking cows, churning butter, selling milk; play and games; visits to windmills and barges; cultural details such as wooden shoes, storks' nests, blue-and-white dishes, dikes and canals; seasonal events including sleigh rides, St. Nicholas and Christmas; songs and simple illustrated scenes intended for classroom use. Episodes are short and episodic, combining practical descriptions of customs and landscape with domestic scenes to familiarize young readers with Holland's rhythms and material culture.


KATRINA’S DUCKS

Katrina has some ducks of her own. They are big, white ducks.

She is fond of her big, white ducks. She takes them to the little pond in the meadow. They like to swim in the pond.

Katrina takes her knitting with her. She knits while the ducks swim.

The ducks say “Quack, quack,” as they swim about. Katrina sings a little song while she knits. She sings:

“O, the arms of the windmill
Are high, oh, so high,
And they creak and they creak
As they go whirling by,
O, I wonder, I wonder,
Do they touch the sky,
The arms of the mill
As they go whirling by?”