The red glow of a lantern appeared as if by magic, and revealed a man
standing but twenty yards ahead on a gentle slope of sand. He held
the lantern in one hand, and his right arm was slipped through the
bridles of two horses that waited, side by side, and ready saddled,
their breath smoking out on the night wind.
"Dear me," Captain Salt observed, reaching a hand to Tristram, and
helping him to land; "I forgot to ask if you could ride."
"A very little, my father."
"You will find it difficult, then, to trot. Therefore we will
gallop."
"You intend me to climb upon one of these beasts?"
"That is easy enough."
"I do not deny it; but I suppose you also wish me to stay on."
"Come; we must lose no time."
"Luckily the soil of Holland, as far as I am acquainted with it, is
soft and sandy. On the other hand--"
"Well?"
"I was about to remark that they grow an immense quantity of tulips
in this country, which demand a harder soil."
"We shall pass none."
"That is fortunate. For when I reach home and they ask me,
'Well, what have you done in Holland?' it would be sad to own,
'I have done little beyond rolling on a bed of tulips.'"
With this he climbed into the saddle and thrust his feet well into
the stirrups, while his father whispered a word or two to the
boatmen, who were about to push off on their return journey.
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