Holland - Beside the Zuider Zee - thrifty Dutch villagers on the fisherman's wharf at Volendam, Holland

One of a set of 36 cards in a boxed set called 'Real Children'...Written on reverse:.It is the Zuyder Zee over which you are looking, from a point on its western shore 14 miles N.E. of Amsterdam. The paved embankment on which you stand is one of the famous dikes or sea-walls protecting from the encroachments of the sea the low-lying fields which border it. (A project dear to the heart of Dutch engineers looks to the ultimate draining of all this enormous bay and the conversion of its bed into fertile pasture and farm lands.).These boats belong to Volendam skippers; they go on North Sea cruises for cod and herring. Notice the nets hung from the yards to dry. Most of these boys look forward to voyages with their fathers or their neighbours; meanwhile they attend the village schools and earn small sums running errands or posing for the numerous painters and photographers who come here during the summer season. Their curiously baggy trousers and huge wooden shoes which make them look so picturesque to foreign eyes, are parts of the long-established costume of this part of the country. The loose fit of the shoes is intentional, so that they may be easily dropped off at the house door..The oldest girl is accustomed to the task of scrubbing such shoes regularly with soap and sand to keep them up to the Dutch standard of cleanliness. Notice her apron - gingham for the gathers at the top and dark woolen stuff below.