124 A DOG OF FLANDERS.

all sides, it was a hard trial to
have the whole of that little world
turn against him for naught. Es-
pecially hard in that bleak, snow-
bound, famine-stricken winter-time
when the only light and warmth
there could be found abode beside
the village hearths and in the kindly
greetings of neighbors. In the win-
ter-time all drew nearer to each other,
all to all, except to Nello and Pa-
trasche, with whom none now would
have anything to do, and who were
left to fare as they might with the
old paralyzed, bedridden man in the
little cabin, whose fire was often low,
and whose board was often without
bread; for there was a buyer from
Antwerp who had taken to drive his