The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-04-11

first day of December, and the decision
 was to be given on the 24th, so that
 the winner might reeoicj at the Christi
 mas season.
 In the twilight of a bitter winter
 day Nello placed the great picture on
 his little milk cart and took it to Ant
 werp with a beating heart, now quick
 with hope, now faint with fear. It
 seemed to him so vain and daring that
 he, lad with bare feet, who hardly
 knew his letters, should expect great
 artists, real artists, to look at his
 work. Yet when he saw the cathedral
 he took heart. The form of Rubens
 seemed to loom magnifcently before
 him, and the lips with their kindly
 smile seemed to murmur: Nay Have
 courage! It was not by a weak h cart
 and by faint fears that I wrote my
 name for all time upon Antwerpr'
 That night the sharp winter became
 sharper Snow began to fall, and fell
 for many days. Paths and roads were
 lost. It became bitter work to carry
 the milk to Antwerp-especially for
 Patrasche, whose bones were growing old. Nello tried to spare him and drag the cart himself, but the dog would not permit it. He hung stub bornly to his harness, and Nello could assist , him only by pushing behind secretly. One afternoon as they came back from Antwerp Nello found pretty lit- tie ornamental figure, tambourine player all scarlet and gold, lying in the road. He tried to find its owner. but failed. Then he thought that it would please Alois.
 It was quite night when he passed the mill house, but he thought it could 1 be no harm if he gave her his little | treasure trove. He climbed a shed with a sloping roof beneath her window and tapped lightly on the pane. Alois opened l and looked out.
 | Nello put the figure into her hands Here is a pretty thing I found in the | road,' he said. Take it. Alois. and God bless thee, dear" He slipped from the shed roof before she had time to thank ! him and ran off through the darkness That night there was a fire at the mill and much corn was destroyed though the buildings were saved un- The miller was insured, and lost noth- ing. but he was furious, and declared ! that the fire was due to no accident. He thrust Nello aside angrily wh en he saw him among those who had been reused out and had come to help.
 .~rhou vert seen lettering here after dark cried he in his wrath, "and I be- than anyone"
 Nello heard him in stupefed silence. He could not believe that anyone could say l such a thing except in jest, yet he could not comprehend how any one could make a jest at such time.
 The whisper ran through the village that Nello had been seen in the mill yard
 after dark and that he bore Baas Colgez grudge fof forbidding his intercourse with little Aois. No one charged him
 seriously with having set the fire; yet the villagers, servile to their richest man and eager to hold his favor, gave grave looks and cold words to old Jehan Daas' grand son.
 "Thou art cruel to the lad" said the miller's wife Sure he is an innocent lad and a faithful one, and would never dream of such wickedness, however sore his heart might be-"
 But because Baas Colgez knew that he was committing 8 great injustice he held to 1t grimly and stubbornly.
 It was hard trial for the lad to have the whole of his little world turn from
 him-especially hard in that snowbound