Hans Brinker; Or, The Silver Skates

by Mary Mapes Dodge

  XXI

  MYNHEER KLEEF AND HIS BILL OF FARE

  The boys soon found an unpretending establishment near the Breedstraat(Broad Street) with a funnily painted lion over the door. This was theROODE LEEUW or Red Lion, kept by one Huygens Kleef, a stout Dutchmanwith short legs and a very long pipe.

  By this time they were in a ravenous condition. The tiffin, taken atHaarlem, had served only to give them an appetite, and this had beenheightened by their exercise, and swift sail upon the canal.

  "Come, mine host! give us what you can!" cried Peter rather pompously.

  "I can give you anything--everything," answered Mynheer Kleef,performing a difficult bow.

  "Well, give us sausage and pudding."

  "Ah, mynheer, the sausage is all gone. There is no pudding."

  "Salmagundi, then, and plenty of it."

  "That is out also, young master."

  "Eggs, and be quick."

  "Winter eggs are _very_ poor eating," answered the innkeeper, puckeringhis lips, and lifting his eyebrows.

  "No eggs? well--Caviare."

  The Dutchman raised his fat hands:

  "Caviare! That is made of gold! Who has caviare to sell?"

  Peter had sometimes eaten it at home; he knew that it was made of theroes of the sturgeon, and certain other large fish, but he had no ideaof its cost.

  "Well, mine host, what have you?"

  "What have I? Everything. I have rye-bread, sour-krout, potato-salad andthe fattest herring in Leyden."

  "What do you say, boys?" asked the captain; "will that do?"

  "Yes," cried the famished youths, "if he'll only be quick."

  Mynheer moved off like one walking in his sleep, but soon opened hiseyes wide at the miraculous manner in which his herring were made todisappear. Next came, or rather went, potato-salad, rye-bread andcoffee--then Utrecht water flavored with orange, and, finally, slices ofdry gingerbread. This last delicacy was not on the regular bill of fare;but Mynheer Kleef, driven to extremes, solemnly produced it from his ownprivate stores, and gave only a placid blink when his voracious youngtravelers started up, declaring they had eaten enough.

  "I should think so!" he exclaimed internally, but his smooth face gaveno sign.

  Softly rubbing his hands, he asked:

  "Will your worships have beds?"

  "Will your worships have beds?" mocked Carl--"what do you mean? Do welook sleepy?"

  "Not at all, master; but I would cause them to be warmed and aired. Nonesleep under damp sheets at the Red Lion."

  "Ah, I understand. Shall we come back here to sleep, captain?"

  Peter was accustomed to finer lodgings; but this was a frolic.

  "Why not?" he replied; "we can fare excellently here."

  "Your worship speaks only the truth," said mynheer with great deference.

  "How fine to be called 'your worship,'" laughed Ludwig aside to Lambert,while Peter replied:

  "Well, mine host, you may get the rooms ready by nine."

  "I have one beautiful chamber, with three beds, that will hold all ofyour worships," said Mynheer Kleef coaxingly.

  "That will do."

  "Whew!" whistled Carl when they reached the street.

  Ludwig started. "What now?"

  "Nothing--only Mynheer Kleef of the Red Lion little thinks how we shallmake things spin in that same room to-night--We'll set the bolstersflying!"

  "Order!" cried the captain. "Now, boys, I must seek this great Dr.Boekman before I sleep. If he is in Leyden it will be no great task tofind him, for he always puts up at the Golden Eagle when he comes here.I wonder that you did not all go to bed at once--Still, as you areawake, what say you to walking with Ben up by the Museum or theStadhuis?"

  "Agreed," said Ludwig and Lambert; but Jacob preferred to go with Peter.In vain Ben tried to persuade him to remain at the Inn and rest. Hedeclared that he never felt "petter," and wished of all things to take alook at the city, for it was his first "stop mit Leyden."

  "Oh, it will not harm him," said Lambert. "How long the day hasbeen--and what glorious sport we have had. It hardly seems possible thatwe left Broek only this morning."

  Jacob yawned.

  "I have enjoyed it well," he said, "but it seems to me at least a weeksince we started."

  Carl laughed, and muttered something about "twenty naps----"

  "Here we are at the corner; remember, we all meet at the Red Lion ateight," said the captain, as he and Jacob walked away.