Stories of Childhood | Page 5

and a lovely bloom upon his face, and fair locks that clustered to his
throat; and many an artist sketched the group as it went by him,--the
green cart with the brass flagons of Teniers and Mieris and Van Tal,
and the great tawny-colored, massive dog, with his belled harness that
chimed cheerily as he went, and the small figure that ran beside him

which had little white feet in great 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 himself, when the summer came and he was better again,
had no need to stir out, but could sit in the doorway in the sun and see
them go forth through the garden wicket, and then doze and dream and
pray a little, and then awake again as the clock tolled three and watch
for their return. And on their return Patrasche would shake himself free
of his harness with a bay of glee, 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 milk or soup, and would see the shadows lengthen over
the great 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 summer especially were they glad. 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 some gaunt gray
tower, with its peal of pathetic bells, or some figure coming athwart the
fields, made picturesque by a gleaner's bundle or a woodman's fagot,
there is no change, 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 charm of their own even in their dulness and
monotony; and amongst the rushes by the waterside 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
varicolored 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 work was done, than to lie
buried in the lush grasses on the side of the canal, and watch the
cumbrous vessels drifting by and bringing the crisp salt smell of the sea
amongst the blossoming 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 warm weather, buried
in a great kindly-clambering 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 limbs of Nello, and the icicles cut the brave,
untiring feet of Patrasche.
But even then they were never heard to lament, either of them. The
child's wooden shoes and the dog's four legs would trot manfully
together over the frozen fields to the chime of the bells on the harness;
and then sometimes, in the streets of Antwerp, some housewife would
bring 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
homeward, or some woman in their own village would bid them keep
some share of the milk they carried for their own food; and then 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 was well with them, very well; and Patrasche,
meeting on the highway or in the public