s
28 A DOG OF FLANDERS.

on foot and on mules, in wagons or
in carts, went by, tramping quickly
and joyously on to Louvain. Some
saw him; most did not even look: all .
passed on. A dead dog more or
less —it was nothing in Brabant: it
would be nothing anywhere in the
world.

After a time, amongst the holi-
day-makers, there came a little old
man who was bent and lame and very
feeble. He was in no guise for feast- -
ing: he was very poorly and miserably ©
clad, and he dragged his silent way -
slowly through the dust amongst the -
pleasure-seekers. He looked at Pa-
trasche, paused, wondered, turned
aside, then kneeled down in the rank
grass and weeds of the ditch, and