A DOG OF FLANDERS. 127

Nello and Patrasche were left ut-
-terly alone; for one night in the
week before the Christmas Day,
Death entered there, and took away
from life forever old Jehan Daas,
who had never known of life aught
save its poverty and its pains. He
had long been half dead, incapable
of any movement except a feeble
gesture, and powerless for anything
beyond a gentle word; and yet his
loss fell on them both with a great
horror in it. They mourned him
passionately. He had passed away
from them in his sleep, and when in
the gray dawn they learned their
bereavement, unutterable solitude and
desolation seemed to close around
them. He had long been only a