26 A DOG OF FLANDERS.

It was the last day before Kermesse,
away at Louvain, and the Brabantois
was in haste to reach the fair and get
a good place for his truck of brass
wares. He was in fierce wrath, be-
cause Patrasche had been a strong
and much-enduring animal, and be-

cause he himself had now the hard
* task of pushing his charette all the
way to Louvain. But to stay to
look after Patrasche never entered his
thoughts: the beast was dying and
useless, and he would steal, to replace
him, the first large dog that he found
wandering alone out of sight of its
master. Patrasche had cost him
nothing, or next to nothing ; and for
two long, cruel years he had made him
toil ceaselessly in his service from