cart with the brass flagons of Teniers and Mieris and Van Tal, and the
great tawny-colored, massive dog, with his belled harness that chimed
cheerily as he went, and the small figure that ran beside him which had
little white feet in great wooden shoes, and a soft, grave, innocent,
happy face like the little fair children of Rubens.

Nello and Patrasche did the work so well and so joyfully together that
Jehan Daas himself, when the summer came and he was better again, had no
need to stir out, but could sit in the doorway in the sun and see them go
forth through the garden wicket, and then doze and dream and pray a
little, and then awake again as the clock tolled three and watch for their
return. And on their return Patrasche would shake himself free of his
harness with a bay of glee, and Nello would recount with pride the doings
of the day; and they would all go in together to their meal of rye bread
and milk or soup, and would see the shadows lengthen over the great plain,
and see the twilight veil the fair cathedral spire; and then lie down
together to sleep peacefully while the old man said a prayer. So the days
and the years went on, and the lives of Nello and Patrasche were happy,
innocent, and healthful. In the spring and summer especially were they
glad. Flanders is not a lovely land, and around the burgh of Rubens it is
perhaps least lovely of all. Corn and colza, pasture and plough, succeed
each other on the characterless plain in wearying repetition, and save by
some gaunt gray tower, with its peal of pathetic bells, or some figure
coming athwart the fields, made picturesque by a gleaner's bundle or a
woodman's fagot, there is no change, no variety, no beauty anywhere; and
he who has dwelt upon the mountains or amidst the forests feels oppressed
as by imprisonment with the tedium and the endlessness of that vast and
dreary level. But it is green and very fertile, and it has wide horizons
that have a certain charm of their own even in their dulness and monotony;
and among the rushes by the water-side the flowers grow, and the trees