152. A DOG OF FLANDERS.

and gladdest, and the Christ-child
brought choicest gifts to Alois, Pa-
trasche, watching always an occasion,
glided out when the door was un-
latched by a careless new-comer, and
as swiftly as his weak and tired limbs
- would bear him sped over the snow
in the bitter black night. He had
only one thought,— to follow Nello.
A human friend might have paused
for the pleasant meal, the cheery
warmth, the cosey slumber; but that
was not the friendship of Patrasche.
He remembered a bygone time, when
an old man and a little child had
found him sick unto death in the
wayside ditch.

Snow had fallen freshly all the even-
ing long; it was now nearly ten;