16 A DOG OF FLANDERS.

hut indeed, but it was clean and white
as a sea-shell, and stood in a small
plot of garden-ground that yielded
beans and herbs and pumpkins.
They were very poor, terribly poor —
many a day they had nothing at all to
eat. They never by any chance had
enough: to have had enough to eat
would have been to have reached para-’
dise at once. But the old man was
very gentle and good to the boy, and
the boy was a beautiful, innocent,
truthful, tender-natured creature ; and
they were happy on a crust and a few
leaves of cabbage, and asked no more
of earth or heaven; save indeed that
Patrasche should be always with
them, since without Patrasche, where
would they have been?