Baking time was a great event at the Van Bommels’ and no men-folks were allowed in the kitchen on that day, unless they were called in to help. The loaves of dough were put in the oven once a week. Stacks of rye bread, a yard long and thicker than a man’s arm, stood on end in the corner of the cool, stone-lined basement. There was always plenty to eat at the Van Bommels’ house. The Van Bommels were not rich, but everything was shining clean. In winter, when the bed felt warm and Jack Frost was lively, he often heard the cows talking, in their way, before he jumped out of his bag of straw, which served for a mattress. In summer time he slept till the birds began to sing, at dawn. When Klaas went to bed he usually fell asleep as soon as his shock of yellow hair touched the pillow. But at every meal there was cheese, usually in thin slices, which the boy thought not thick enough. Twice a week the children enjoyed a bowl of bonnyclabber or curds, with a little brown sugar sprinkled on the top.
Very quickly then did potato and butter disappear “down the red lane.” At supper, he had bread and skim milk, left after the cream had been taken off, with a saucer, to make butter. Into these he first plunged a fork and then dipped each round, white ball into a bowl of hot melted butter. At dinner time, beside cheese and bread, he was given a plate heaped with boiled potatoes. He had rye bread and fresh milk for breakfast. Then, on his birthday, he had boy’s clothes, with two pockets in them, of which he was proud enough. Until he was five years old, Klaas was dressed like his sisters. These were buttoned on to a thick warm jacket.
They were called bell trousers, and in shape were like a couple of cow-bells turned upwards. In winter he wore woollen breeches as wide as coffee bags. In summer Klaas was dressed in a rough, blue linen blouse. Klaas stood in a pair of timber shoes, that made an awful rattle when he ran fast to catch a rabbit, or scuffed slowly along to school over the brick road of his village. It was as thick as reeds in a swamp and was cut level, from under one ear to another. His hair was of a color half-way between a carrot and a sweet potato. His appetite was always good and his mother declared his stomach had no bottom. He was over five feet high, weighed a hundred pounds, and had rosy cheeks. Klaas Van Bommel was a Dutch boy, twelve years old, who lived where cows were plentiful.
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