two
o'clock
After four years ' pumping , the lake was dried up , and the land was sold at the rate of about eighty-five dollars an acre . The machinery is still required to keep the water down . One engine works eleven pumps , with a lift of thirteen feet , discharging sixty-three tons of water at a stroke . The travellers took their places in the train , and in a few minutes were conveyed over the causeways into Amsterdam , in season for the two o'clock dinner . After dinner the party , in charge of a couple of the city officials , who had given them a welcome , went to the Palace , the noblest building in Amsterdam . It rests upon nearly fourteen thousand piles , driven seventy feet through the mud to `` hard pan . '' During the reign of King Louis , it was his residence , and the other sovereigns of Holland used it when they visited the city .