"I have engaged Mr. Hamblin for a year from the 1st of July."
"I should pay him his salary in full, and let him depart in peace, if he would."
"So far as that is concerned, I will volunteer to take the department of mathematics. I was a tutor in college in that branch for a couple of years."
Mr. Lowington thanked the surgeon for this offer; and the call to divine service in the steerage terminated the interview. The principal's advisers spoke his own opinions; and the only thing that embarrassed him in getting rid of the obnoxious professor was the bad conduct of the students in regard to him. It was emphatically wrong for them to "haze" an unpopular professor; and Mr. Lowington was not willing to act under apparent compulsion.
The school studies were continued as usual through the forenoon of Monday. After dinner, dressed in their best uniforms, with bag and blanket, the students were conveyed to the shore for their trip through Holland, which was to occupy three or four days. The first afternoon was to be occupied in exploring Rotterdam, and, as usual, Paul Kendall and Dr. Winstock kept together.
"This is the _Hoogstraat_," said the doctor, when they reached the principal street of the city.
"Not at all," laughed Dr. Winstock. "It means the _High Street_. It is situated on the top of an old dike or dam, built to keep the Maas from overflowing the country behind it. One of these canals is formed out of the River Rotte. This stream and this dam gave the name of _Rotterdam_ to the place."
"Whose statue is that?" asked Paul, when they came to a wide bridge over a broad canal.
"That is the statue of Erasmus, who was born in Rotterdam."
"He was a noted theologian and classical scholar, who made his mark in the polemical discussions of Germany and Switzerland in the time of the Reformation. This is the _Groote Markt_, or market-place, of Rotterdam," added Dr. Winstock, when they had crossed the bridge.
[Illustration: A DISAGREEMENT AMONG THE DOG TEAMS.--Page 314.]
It was a great square, in the middle of which the canal widened into a basin for the accommodation of the market boats, by which the meats and vegetables are brought from the country. There were plenty of dog teams passing in and out of this square, and at rest there, which amused the young Americans hugely. The vehicle--a little cart or wagon, sometimes large enough to contain four of the great polished brass milk-cans, holding from ten to twenty gallons, and sometimes no bigger than a baby carriage--was generally in charge of a woman. In some of them the dog was regularly harnessed in a pair of shafts; but in the larger ones there was a division of labor between the driver and the animals. The woman held the shafts, while the dogs, from two to six in number, were attached to various parts of the vehicle. If there were but two of them, they generally trotted under the wagon, being harnessed to the axletree; if more than two, the others were hitched on ahead of her, and at each side of her. The dogs were of all sorts and sizes, and seemed to be patient and well trained in the discharge of their duty. In some instances, while the woman held the shaft, a stout man walked behind, with a stick in his hand, officiating as general manager of the team, including his "_vrow_"!