Read "Windmills and wooden shoes" by Maude M. Grant online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Peter was a little Dutch boy. He lived in Holland. He lived by the big / dike. The dike was very big and very strong. It kept the sea from the / land of Holland.
Peter knew how men watched the dikes. He knew that they had to do it, / for if a leak came in the dike, the water would rush in.
The dike would break and the water would cover the land.
One day Peter's mother said to Peter, "Peter, I wish you would take / your father's dinner to him. He is working far, far down on the shore. / You may run along on the dike if you wish."
So Peter started out with his basket. He went along the dike. He had / gone quite far, and was tired, so he sat down to rest.
As he sat there, he heard a trickling sound. "That sounds like water / trickling in a hole," said Peter to himself.
He looked around. At last he found a little hole in the dike. The water / was trickling in.
It was only a tiny stream.
"O, what shall I do?" said Peter. He ran to see if there was any one / coming. But he could see no one. So he ran back to the hole in the dike / and put his little hand over the hole. His hand stopped the water from / coming in.
Poor Peter called and called, but no one heard. He became very stiff / and lame, but he did not take his hand from the hole in the dike.
At last the sun went down, and it began to grow dark. Peter's father / and mother came to look for him. They found him cold and frightened / with his little hand over the leak in the dike.
Men came with their tools and mended the dike.
"Brave, brave Peter," they said. "You have saved your country from a / great flood."
All the people thought Peter was very brave indeed. They came to see / him and brought him gifts. Even the king thanked Peter and sent him a / bag of gold.
"I think Peter was very brave and very unselfish," said Jan. "He did / not think of himself, though he was cold and stiff and frightened. He / thought of all the people who would lose their homes and lives, and so, / though he was only a little boy, he was brave and strong enough to save / his country from the sea."