77
was left but the foundations, then you'd hear a lot
of sighing, because there was plenty of sorrow as well
in all the houses over the evil that people did without
wanting to do it. * You're very ignorant/ said
Jansje, going on with her scrubbing, * as though we
can't do right or wrong just as we choose.3 Stien
sighed and looked up at the ceiling.
He talked about it to Uncle Frans when he went
out with him to give him his arm. One morning in
the winter Frans had run out in a hurry thinking that
the Damiaatjes were ringing for a fire, but it was to
warn people of the slipperiness of the streets, for
there had been a glazed frost. Just outside the door
he'slipped himself, fell down the steps and broke
his ankle. He had been in bed for a long time and
was still rather lame ; the doctor said he ought to go
out as much as possible. They walked slowly under
the trees by the Spaarne, and Floris asked him if it
was true that in all those houses in front of them
wrong was being done that people couldn't help
doing. c I don't know about that/ said Frans. ' Do
you see that tower there on the Church ? Nobody
knows how long that's been standing there. All
through the day you hear the big bells, in the
evening the small ones, and do you know what they
say ? The big ones tell us to pray that we may
be forgiven for everything, and the small ones,
when it's dark before we begin the night, tell us
that we must have faith in better times to come.