Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates

Set in Holland during December and the weeks that follow, the story follows the Brinker family as they struggle against poverty and misfortune in the days surrounding a grand skating race on the frozen canals near Amsterdam.

On a cold December morning, 15-year-old Hans Brinker and his 12-year-old sister Gretel skate on a frozen canal using crude wooden runners, their family too poor to afford steel skates. Their father, Raff Brinker, once worked maintaining the dikes, the massive earthen barriers that protect the low-lying Dutch landscape from the sea. Ten years earlier, during a threatened flood, Raff fell from scaffolding and was carried home unconscious. Though his body recovered, his mind did not; he has lived ever since in a vacant, childlike state. Their mother, Dame Brinker, supports the family through spinning, knitting, and raising vegetables.

A group of prosperous young skaters, including Hilda van Gleck, daughter of the burgomaster (the town mayor), excitedly discuss an upcoming race on December twentieth, the birthday of Mevrouw (Mrs.) van Gleck. The prize is a pair of silver skates for the fastest girl and another for the fastest boy. Hilda notices Hans and Gretel on their wooden runners and invites them to enter, giving Hans eight kwartjes (small silver coins) to buy skates in exchange for a carved wooden chain. Hans insists Gretel receive the skates and resolves to earn money for his own pair. Two days later, having received payment from Peter van Holp, one of the wealthy skating boys, for a second chain, Hans buys himself skates as well.

At home, Dame Brinker confides a deeper anguish. The family had saved a thousand guilders, but the money vanished the day before Raff's accident. Raff also left her a silver watch, telling her to guard it until he asked for it again. Dame Brinker has resisted selling the watch despite years of poverty, fearing it may not belong to them. Hans, troubled by his father's condition, encounters Dr. Boekman, the most famous surgeon in Holland, and begs him to examine Raff. Moved by the boy's earnestness and reminded of his own lost son, the doctor refuses payment and promises to visit within a week.

On Saint Nicholas's Eve, Hans and Gretel enjoy their new skates, but their joy is cut short when Raff frightens their mother in a violent episode. Meanwhile, Jacob Poot introduces his English cousin Benjamin Dobbs to the group, and the boys plan a grand skating journey from Broek to The Hague, nearly 50 miles, with Peter elected captain. The party includes Peter, his brother Ludwig, Carl Schummel, Jacob, Lambert van Mounen, and Ben.

The journey provides a panoramic tour of Holland. Skating toward Haarlem, Peter discovers the purse containing the party's pooled funds has vanished. Before they can turn back, Hans appears; he has found the purse and returns it, refusing any reward. He tells Peter about Raff's worsening state and his desperate need for Dr. Boekman. Peter volunteers to leave a message for the doctor in Leyden. The boys continue their trip, surviving a robbery attempt at an inn in Leyden and eventually reaching The Hague, where they stay with Peter's married sister and tour the city.

Back at the Brinker cottage, Raff has grown weaker. Dr. Boekman arrives and diagnoses pressure on the brain from a clot beneath the skull. He proposes surgery, warning Hans that without it Raff will die, but the operation itself may kill him. Dame Brinker consents. Gretel, terrified, flees the cottage and nearly freezes outside before Hilda discovers and rouses her.

The operation succeeds. Raff stirs, opens his eyes, and speaks, calling out commands about the dikes as though resuming work from the night of his accident. Then he recognizes his wife, calling her by his affectionate name "Meitje," and asks for "little Hans." His mind is restored, though he believes only a short time has passed. The family weeps with joy.

New difficulties arise when the doctor prescribes fresh meat, wine, and warm bedding, all luxuries beyond the family's means. Not a stiver, a coin of the smallest value, remains in the house. Hilda arrives with provisions, and the doctor sends wine and bedding. Hans, determined to provide for the family, sells his skates through Annie Bouman, Gretel's loyal friend, who returns with seven guilders. Peter arranges a wood-carving job for Hans.

As Raff gains strength, he reveals he buried the thousand guilders beside a willow sapling behind the cottage. Hans and Dame Brinker dig all night but find nothing. Days later, Annie visits and playfully stamps her foot near a stump, pretending to be a fairy godmother. After she leaves, Hans realizes the stump is the remains of the willow, which Dame Brinker cut down the previous spring. He and his mother dig beside it and unearth the stone pot containing the thousand guilders intact.

Raff also tells the story of the watch. On the morning of his accident, a frightened young man begged passage down the river, confessing he had done something terrible. The youth gave Raff the watch, asking him to deliver it to his father. Dame Brinker notices the initials "L.J.B." engraved on it.

December twentieth arrives with perfect weather, and crowds gather on the frozen Y, a waterway near Amsterdam, for the grand race. Hans competes wearing the very skates Annie bought and returned to him. In the girls' races, Gretel wins the first mile, flying past Katrinka, one of the competitors, and Hilda. Hilda wins the second mile, and Gretel wins the decisive third, claiming the silver skates. In the boys' races, Carl Schummel wins the first mile and Peter the second. Before the final mile, Peter discovers his skate strap has been cut nearly through. Hans removes his own strap and gives it to Peter, sacrificing his chance. Peter wins the silver skates. Gretel, overwhelmed, gathers her prize into her apron and runs to find her parents.

After the race, visitors to the Brinker cottage connect the watch's mystery to an unexpected clue. Inside the skate case Gretel won as her prize, Peter reads the maker's name: "Thomas Higgs, Birmingham." Raff exclaims that this is the name the young man assumed. Ben recognizes Higgs as a leather-goods maker near his English home. Dr. Boekman, arriving that evening, is overcome with emotion. The initials L.J.B. stand for his lost son, Laurens J. Boekman, who accidentally dispensed the wrong medicine for a patient. Though the error was caught and the medicine never administered, the patient died of other causes that same day. Believing himself responsible, Laurens fled Holland. Dr. Boekman, who thought his son had abandoned him, now understands the truth and vows to find him.

In January, Laurens returns. Dr. Boekman offers to sponsor Hans's medical education, and Raff is given a position overseeing Laurens's new warehouse in Amsterdam. Years later, Hans has become the famous Dr. Brinker, married to Annie Bouman. Peter has married Hilda, and Gretel has grown into the finest singer in Amsterdam, remembered above all as the little girl who won the silver skates.