A DOG OF FLANDERS. 15

trampled the country as oxen tread
down the furrows, and who had
brought from his service nothing ex-
cept a wound, which had made him
a cripple.

When old Jehan Daas had reached
his full eighty, his daughter had died
in the Ardennes, hard by Stavelot,
and had left him in legacy her two-
year old son. The old man could ill
contrive to support himself, but he
took up the additional burden uncom-
plainingly, and it soon became wel-
come and precious to him. Little
Nello —which was but a pet diminu-
tive for Nicolas—throve with him,
and the old man and the little child
lived in the poor little hut contentedly.

It was a very humble little mud-