10 A DOG OF FLANDERS.

between them, their first bond of
sympathy; and it had strengthened
day by day, and had grown with their
growth, firm and indissoluble, until
they loved one another very greatly.

Their home was a little hut on the
edge of a little village —a Flemish
village a league from Antwerp, set
amidst flat breadths of pasture’ and
corn-lands, with long lines of poplars
and of alders bending in the breeze
on the edge of the great canal which
ran through it. It had about a score
of houses and homesteads, with shut-
ters of bright green or sky-blue, and
roofs rose-red or black and white, and
walls whitewashed until they shone
in the sun like snow. In the centre
of the village stood a windmill,