22 A DOG OF FLANDERS.

and pans and flagons and buckets and
other wares of crockery and brass and
tin, and left Patrasche to draw the
load as best he might, whilst he him-
self lounged idly by the side in fat
and sluggish ease, smoking his black
pipe and stopping at every wine-shop
or café on the road.
Happily for Patrasche — or unhap-
pily — he was very strong: he came
of an iron race, long born and bred
to such cruel travail, so that he did
not die, but managed to drag on a
wretched existence under the brutal
burdens, the scarifying lashes, the
hunger, the thirst, the blows, the
curses, and the exhaustion which
are the only wages with which the
Flemings repay the most patient