170 A DOG OF FLANDERS.

them than longer life would have
been. It had taken the one in the
loyalty of love, and the other in the
innocence of faith, from a world
which for love has no recompense
and for faith no fulfilment.

All their lives they had been
together, and in their deaths they
were not divided; for when they
were found the arms of the boy were
folded too closely around the dog to
be severed without violence, and the
people of their little village, contrite
and ashamed, implored a_ special
grace for them, and, making them
one grave, laid them to rest there
side by side —forever!

 

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