120 A DOG OF FLANDERS.

o;

every morning for the milk for Ant-
werp, downcast glances and brief
phrases replaced to them the broad
smiles and cheerful greetings to
which they had been always used.
No one really credited the miller’s
absurd suspicion, nor the outrageous
accusations born of them, but the
people were all very poor and very
ignorant, and the one rich man of
the place had’ pronounced against
him. Nello, in his innocence and
his friendlessness, had no strength
to stem the popular tide.

“ Thou art very cruel to the lad,”
the miller’s wife dared to say, weep-
ing, to her lord. “Sure he is an in-
nocent lad and a faithful, and would
never dream of any such wicked-