"I don't see any carriages," he said, after studying this matter for some time.
"People don't ride much here," said Greta. "There are plenty of carriages in Amsterdam."
"On our feet and in boats. Look at our fine river, and there are ever so many canals! What do we want with carriages?"
"It must be jolly going everywhere in boats," said Will. "I should like that!"
"We have some very pretty boats," said Greta, much pleased. "Oh! wouldn't you like to go fishing? I'll ask father to take us some day soon. I saw a net in the market-boat this morning."
"Well, if that isn't funny!" cried Martin, with a burst of laughter. Will joined in the laugh, and Greta looked around in vain to discover the cause of their merriment.
"Looking-glasses on the _outside_ of the houses!" explained Martin, pointing to one opposite. "I guess they're put there for the girls to look in as they walk along," he added, mischievously. "They can't wait to get home to admire themselves."
Sure enough, there was a mirror outside the window, set at such an angle that the persons inside the house could see who was passing up and down the street. And there was a mirror on the next house, and the next.
"Why, they are on all the houses!" said Will.
"To be sure!" said Greta. "What is there funny in that? And the girls don't look in them any more than the boys, Mr. Martin. Don't you ever want to know what is going on in the street?"
"How are you going to do it without the looking-glass to tell you?"
"Whose eyes do you use when you look in a glass?" said Greta.
Martin looked puzzled, and had no reply ready; and Will thought his cousin Greta very clever, although she was a girl, and a year younger than himself.
"What lots of flowers!" was his next comment. "They are everywhere, except in this brick pavement, and nothing could grow here, it is so clean."
"And such pretty houses in the gardens!" said Will.
"But they are so small," said Martin, "It would take a dozen of them to make a New York house."
"My goodness!" said Greta, turning her head back as far as she could, and looking at the sky. "How do you ever see up to their roofs?"
"Divide Martin's twelve by four, and you will come nearer the truth," said Will, laughing. "But, at any rate, the houses are pretty--painted green and yellow, with red-tiled roofs."