Part 2 (1/2)
He drew Nello's fair head fondly to his breast with a tenderer gesture
”Thou art very poor, ed, tre voice--”so poor! It is very hard for thee”
”Nay, I aht so--rich with the is
And he went and stood by the door of the hut in the quiet autuht, and watched the stars troop by and the tall poplars bend and shi+ver in the wind All the casehted, and every now and then the notes of the flute came to him The tears fell down his cheeks, for he was but a child, yet he smiled, for he said to himself, ”In the future!” He stayed there until all was quite still and dark, then he and Patrasche ithin and slept together, long and deeply, side by side
[Illustration]
Now he had a secret which only Patrasche knew There was a little out-house to the hut, which no one entered but hiht from the north Here he had fashi+oned hiray sea of stretched paper he had given shape to one of the innumerable fancies which possessed his brain No one had ever taught hione without bread many a time to procure even the few rude vehicles that he had here; and it was only in black or white that he could fashi+on the things he saw This great figure which he had drawn here in chalk was only an oldon a fallen tree--only that
He had seen old Michel the wood many a time He had never had a soul to tell him of outline or perspective, of anatoiven all the weary, worn-out age, all the sad, quiet patience, all the rugged, careworn pathos of his original, and given the there, meditative and alone, on the dead tree, with the darkness of the descending night behind him
It was rude, of course, in a way, and had many faults, no doubt; and yet it was real, true in nature, true in art, and very mournful, and in a manner beautiful
Patrasche had lain quiet countless hours watching its gradual creation after the labor of each day was done, and he knew that Nello had a hope--vain and wild perhaps, but strongly cherished--of sending this great drawing to compete for a prize of two hundred francs a year which it was announced in Antould be open to every lad of talent, scholar or peasant, under eighteen, ould attempt to win it with some unaided work of chalk or pencil Three of the forees and elect the victor according to hisand summer and autumn Nello had been at work upon this treasure, which, if triumphant, would build him his first step toward independence and the norantly, and yet passionately adored
He said nothing to any one: his grandfather would not have understood, and little Alois was lost to him Only to Patrasche he told all, and whispered, ”Rubens would give it ht so too, for he knew that Rubens had loved dogs or he had never painted thes were, as Patrasche kneays pitiful
The drawings were to go in on the first day of Deceiven on the twenty-fourth, so that he who should win ht rejoice with all his people at the Christht of a bitter wintry day, and with a beating heart, now quick with hope, now faint with fear, Nello placed the great picture on his little green milk-cart, and took it, with the help of Patrasche, into the town, and there left it, as enjoined, at the doors of a public building
”Perhaps it is worth nothing at all How can I tell?” he thought, with the heart-sickness of a great timidity Now that he had left it there, it seemed to him so hazardous, so vain, so foolish, to dream that he, a little lad with bare feet, who barely knew his letters, could do anything at which great painters, real artists, could ever deign to look Yet he took heart as he went by the cathedral: the lordly for and the darkness, and to loonificence before him, whilst the lips, with their kindly se! It was not by a weak heart and by faint fears that I wrote my nah the cold night, comforted He had done his best: the rest ht, in that innocent, unquestioning faith which had been taught hi the s and the poplar-trees
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The winter was very sharp already That night, after they reached the hut, snow fell; and fell for very many days after that, so that the paths and the divisions in the fields were all obliterated, and all the smaller streams were frozen over, and the cold was intense upon the plains Then, indeed, it becao round for the h the darkness to the silent town Hard work, especially for Patrasche, for the passage of the years, that were only bringing Nello a stronger youth, were bringing hie, and his joints were stiff and his bones ached often But he would never give up his share of the labor Nello would fain have spared him and drawn the cart himself, but Patrasche would not allow it All he would ever permit or accept was the help of a thrust froh the ice-ruts Patrasche had lived in harness, and he was proud of it He suffered a great deal sometimes from frost, and the terrible roads, and the rheumatic pains of his limbs, but he only drew his breath hard and bent his stout neck, and trod onith steady patience
”Rest thee at home, Patrasche--it is time thou didst rest--and I can quite well push in the cart by ; but Patrasche, who understood hiht, would no more have consented to stay at hoe was sounding; and every day he would rise and place hih the fields that his four round feet had left their print upon so many, ht Patrasche; and sometimes it seemed to hiht was less clear than it had been, and it gave hih he would never lie afive let hiun
”My poor Patrasche, we shall soon lie quiet together, you and I,” said old Jehan Daas, stretching out to stroke the head of Patrasche with the old withered hand which had always shared with him its one poor crust of bread; and the hearts of the old ht: When they were gone, ould care for their darling?
One afternoon, as they came back from Antwerp over the snohich had become hard and smooth as marble over all the Flemish plains, they found dropped in the road a pretty little puppet, a tah, and, unlike greater personages when Fortune lets them drop, quite unspoiled and unhurt by its fall It was a pretty toy Nello tried to find its owner, and, failing, thought that it was just the thing to please Alois
It was quite night when he passed the mill-house: he knew the littleof her rooave her his little piece of treasure-trove, they had been playfellows so long There was a shed with a sloping roof beneath her casement: he climbed it and tapped softly at the lattice: there was a little light within The child opened it and looked out half frightened Nello put the tambourine-player into her hands ”Here is a doll I found in the snow, Alois Take it,” he whispered--”take it, and God bless thee, dear!”
He slid down from the shed-roof before she had tih the darkness
That night there was a fire at the h the -house were unharines cah the snow fro: nevertheless, he was in furious wrath, and declared aloud that the fire was due to no accident, but to some foul intent