Part 1 (2/2)

The upshot of that day was, that old Jehan Daas, with much laborious effort, drew the sufferer homeward to his own little hut, which was a stone's throw off amidst the fields, and there tended him with so much care that the sickness, which had been a brain seizure, brought on by heat and thirst and exhaustion, with tith returned, and Patrasche staggered up again upon his four stout, tawny legs

Now for many weeks he had been useless, powerless, sore, near to death; but all this tih word, had felt no harsh touch, but only the pityingcaress of the old rown to care for him, this lonely man and the little happy child He had a corner of the hut, with a heap of dry grass for his bed; and they had learned to listen eagerly for his breathing in the dark night, to tell theh to essay a loud, hollow, broken bay, they laughed aloud, and aln of his sure restoration; and little Nello, in delighted glee, hung round his rugged neck with chains of uerites, and kissed him with fresh and ruddy lips

So then, when Patrasche arose, hireat wistful eyes had a gentle astonishment in them that there were no curses to rouse hihty love, which never wavered once in its fidelity whilst life abode with hirateful Patrasche lay pondering long with grave, tender,the movements of his friends

Now, the old soldier, Jehan Daas, could do nothing for his living but limp about a little with a small cart, hich he carried daily the hbors ned cattle away into the town of Antwerp The villagers gave him the employment a little out of charity--more because it suited them well to send their milk into the town by so honest a carrier, and bide at hoardens, their cows, their poultry, or their little fields But it was becohty-three, and Antas a good league off, or o that one day when he had got well and was lying in the sun with the wreath of , Patrasche, before the old man had touched the cart, arose and walked to it and placed himself betwixt its handles, and testified as plainly as dumb show could do his desire and his ability to work in return for the bread of charity that he had eaten Jehan Daas resisted long, for the old s to labor for which Nature never for they did not harness him, he tried to draw the cart onith his teeth

At length Jehan Daas gave way, vanquished by the persistence and the gratitude of this creature whom he had succored He fashi+oned his cart so that Patrasche could run in it, and this he did everyof his life thenceforward

When the winter caht hi in the ditch that fair-day of Louvain; for he was very old, and he grew feebler with each year, and he would ill have kno to pull his load of h the deep ruts in the th and the industry of the animal he had befriended As for Patrasche, it seehtful burdens that his old master had compelled him to strain under, at the call of the whip at every step, it see to hireen cart, with its bright brass cans, by the side of the gentle old man who always paid him with a tender caress and with a kindly word Besides, his as over by three or four in the day, and after that time he was free to do as he would--to stretch himself, to sleep in the sun, to wander in the fields, to ros Patrasche was very happy

Fortunately for his peace, his former oas killed in a drunken brawl at the Kerht not after him nor disturbed him in his new and well-loved home

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

A few years later, old Jehan Daas, who had always been a cripple, became so paralyzed with rheuo out with the cart any rown to his sixth year of age, and knowing the toell frorandfather so many times, took his place beside the cart, and sold the ht therace and seriousness which charmed all who beheld him

The little Ardennois was a beautiful child, with dark, grave, tender eyes, and a lovely bloom upon his face, and fair locks that clustered to his throat; and reen cart with the brass flagons of Teniers and Mieris and Van Tal, and the great tawny-colored, , with his belled harness that chiure that ran beside hireat wooden shoes, and a soft, grave, innocent, happy face like the little fair children of Rubens

Nello and Patrasche did the work so well and so joyfully together that Jehan Daas hiain, had no need to stir out, but could sit in the doorway in the sun and see thearden wicket, and then doze and dreaain as the clock tolled three and watch for their return And on their return Patrasche would shake hilee, and Nello would recount with pride the doings of the day; and they would all go in together to their meal of rye bread and reat plain, and see the twilight veil the fair cathedral spire; and then lie down together to sleep peacefully while the old man said a prayer So the days and the years went on, and the lives of Nello and Patrasche were happy, innocent, and healthful In the spring and sulad Flanders is not a lovely land, and around the burgh of Rubens it is perhaps least lovely of all Corn and colza, pasture and plough, succeed each other on the characterless plain in wearying repetition, and save by soray toith its peal of pathetic bells, or soleaner's bundle or a woode, no variety, no beauty anywhere; and he who has dwelt upon the mountains or amidst the forests feels oppressed as by imprisonment with the tedium and the endlessness of that vast and dreary level But it is green and very fertile, and it has wide horizons that have a certain char the rushes by the water-side the flowers grow, and the trees rise tall and fresh where the barges glide with their great hulks black against the sun, and their little green barrels and vari-colored flags gay against the leaves Anyway, there is greenery and breadth of space enough to be as good as beauty to a child and a dog; and these two asked no better, when their as done, than to lie buried in the lush grasses on the side of the canal, and watch the cu the crisp salt s scents of the country summer

True, in the winter it was harder, and they had to rise in the darkness and the bitter cold, and they had seldom as much as they could have eaten any day, and the hut was scarce better than a shed when the nights were cold, although it looked so pretty in eather, buried in a great kindly cla vine, that never bore fruit, indeed, but which covered it with luxuriant green tracery all through the months of blossom and harvest In winter the winds found many holes in the walls of the poor little hut, and the vine was black and leafless, and the bare lands looked very bleak and drear without, and sometimes within the floor was flooded and then frozen In winter it was hard, and the snow numbed the little white li feet of Patrasche

But even then they were never heard to la's four legs would trot ether over the frozen fields to the chime of the bells on the harness; and then so them a bowl of soup and a handful of bread, or some kindly trader would throw some billets of fuel into the little cart as it went hoe would bid them keep a share of the milk they carried for their own food; and they would run over the white lands, through the early darkness, bright and happy, and burst with a shout of joy into their home

So, on the whole, it ith thehway or in the public streets the htfall, paid only with blows and curses, and loosened froht-- Patrasche in his heart was very grateful to his fate, and thought it the fairest and the kindliest the world could hold Though he was often very hungry indeed when he lay down at night; though he had to work in the heats of suh his feet were often tender ounds froh he had to perforainst his nature--yet he was grateful and content: he did his duty with each day, and the eyes that he loved smiled down on him It was sufficient for Patrasche

[Illustration]

There was only one thing which caused Patrasche any uneasiness in his life, and it was this Antwerp, as all the world knows, is full at every turn of old piles of stones, dark and ancient and ateways and taverns, rising by the water's edge, with bells ringing above theain out of their arched doors a swell of rand old sanctuaries of the past, shut in amidst the squalor, the hurry, the crowds, the unloveliness, and the co the clouds drift and the birds circle and the winds sigh around them, and beneath the earth at their feet there sleeps--RUBENS

And the greatness of the hty Master still rests upon Antwerp, and wherever we turn in its narrow streets his glory lies therein, so that all ured; and as we pace slowly through the winding ways, and by the edge of the stagnant water, and through the noisome courts, his spirit abides with us, and the heroic beauty of his visions is about us, and the stones that once felt his footsteps and bore his shadow see voices For the city which is the toh hireat white sepulchre--so quiet, save only when the organ peals and the choir cries aloud the Salve Regina or the Kyrie Eleison Sure no artist ever had a greater gravestone than that pure ives to him in the heart of his birthplace in the chancel of St Jacques

Without Rubens, ere Antwerp? A dirty, dusky, bustling mart, which no man would ever care to look upon save the traders who do business on its wharves With Rubens, to the whole world of men it is a sacred naht, a Golgotha where a God of Art lies dead

O nations! closely should you treasure your great men, for by theenerations has been wise In his life she glorified this greatest of her sons, and in his death she nifies his name But her wisdom is very rare

Now, the trouble of Patrasche was this Into these great, sad piles of stones, that reared their melancholy majesty above the crowded roofs, the child Nello would h their dark arched portals, whilst Patrasche, left without upon the pavement, would wearily and vainly ponder on what could be the charm which thus allured from him his inseparable and beloved companion Once or twice he did essay to see for hi up the steps with his milk-cart behind hiain summarily by a tall custodian in black clothes and silver chains of office; and fearful of bringing his little master into trouble, he desisted, and remained couched patiently before the churches until such ti into them which disturbed Patrasche: he knew that people went to church: all the village went to the sray pile opposite the red windmill

What troubled hiely when he came out, always very flushed or very pale; and whenever he returned ho, not caring to play, but gazing out at the evening skies beyond the line of the canal, very subdued and alht it could not be good or natural for the little lad to be so grave, and in his dumb fashi+on he tried all he could to keep Nello by him in the sunny fields or in the busy o: reat cathedral; and Patrasche, left without on the stones by the iron fragate, would stretch hih, and even ho and then, all in vain, until the doors closed and the child perforce ca's neck would kiss him on his broad, tawney-colored forehead, and murmur always the same words: ”If I could only see them, Patrasche!--if I could only see them!”