Young America Abroad

By

Oliver Optic

Dikes and Ditches

OR,

YOUNG AMERICA IN HOLLAND AND BELGIUM.

A Story of Travel and Adventure.

BY

OLIVER OPTIC.

BOSTON Lee & Shepard.

NEW YORK: LEE, SHEPARD & DILLINGHAM, 49 GREENE STREET. 1874.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by WILLIAM T. ADAMS, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

ELECTROTYPED AT THE Boston Stereotype Foundry, No. 19 Spring Lane.

TO

My Fellow-Voyager in the Steamship Persia

DURING A PLEASANT TRIP ACROSS THE ATLANTIC,

IN 1865,

STEPHEN S. HOE,

WHOSE NAME EVER REMINDS ME OF MY PERSONAL INDEBTEDNESS FOR MUCH OF THE PLEASURE OF THE VOYAGE; NOT ONLY TO MY YOUNG FRIEND WHOSE NAME I MENTION HERE, BUT ALSO TO HIM WHO SAT OPPOSITE TO US AT TABLE, WHOSE NAME, ASSOCIATED WITH ONE OF THE PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENTS OF AMERICAN INVENTIVE GENIUS, I NEED NOT MENTION, FOR NO WORD OF MINE COULD HONOR IT,

THIS VOLUME

IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.

YOUNG AMERICA ABROAD.

BY OLIVER OPTIC.

A Library of Travel and Adventure in Foreign Lands. First and Second Series; six volumes in each Series. 16mo. Illustrated.

First Series.

Second Series.

PREFACE.

Dikes and Ditches, the fourth of the "Young America Abroad" series, is a continuation of the history of the Academy Ship and her consort in the waters of Holland and Belgium. As in its predecessors, those parts of the book which lie within the domain of history and fact are intended to be entirely reliable; and great care has been used to make them so. The author finds his notes so copious, and his recollections of the Low Countries so full of interest, that he has felt obliged to devote a considerable portion of the work to the geography and history of the country, and to the manners and customs of the people; but there is so much that is novel in the region itself, and so much that is stirring and even "sensational" in the history of the sturdy patriots of Holland, that he hopes his young friends will not complain of the proportion in which he has mingled his material. It would be a very great happiness to him to have excited a sufficient degree of interest in these countries to induce the boys and girls to read Mr. Motley's inimitable works, "The Rise of the Dutch Republic," and "The History of the United Netherlands." The writer is confident that young people will find these volumes quite as attractive as the story books of the day.

Dikes and Ditches has its independent story of the adventures of the students. Though the Academy Squadron has thus far been remarkably fortunate in the character of its instructors, Professor Hamblin proves to be an exception, and the crews of the ship and her consort are unhappily plunged into sundry disciplinary tribulations by his overstrained dignity, and by his want of discretion. The young commander of the Josephine suffers from the evils of a divided authority, which brings him into conflict with the senior instructor before experience suggests the remedy. While the principal is compelled to punish the students for their misconduct in "hazing" the obnoxious professor, he also finds it necessary to abate the nuisance of a conceited, overbearing, and tyrannical pedagogue. Boys cannot be expected to be angels in school, until their instructors have soared to this sublime height.

The author of the series, more than ever encouraged by the hearty and generous favor of his readers, submits this volume to their consideration, trusting that they will at least appreciate his earnest efforts not only to please, but to instruct them.