them nay." And he thought so still in his innocence; and one day, when
the little Alois, finding him by chance alone amongst the cornfields by
the canal, ran to him and held him close, and sobbed piteously because
the morrow would be her saint's day, and for the first time in all her
life her parents had failed to bid him to the little supper and romp in
the great barns with which her feast-day was always celebrated, Nello
had kissed her and murmured to her in firm faith, "It shall be different
one day, Alois. One day that little bit of pine wood that your father
has of mine shall be worth its weight in silver; and he will not shut
the door against me then. Only love me always, dear little Alois, only
love me always, and I will be great."

"And if I do not love you?" the pretty child asked, pouting a little
through her tears, and moved by the instinctive coquetries of her sex.

Nello's eyes left her face and wandered to the distance, where in the
red and gold of the Flemish night the cathedral spire rose. There was a
smile on his face so sweet and yet so sad that little Alois was awed by
it. "I will be great still," he said under his breath,--"great still, or
die, Alois."

"You do not love me," said the little spoilt child, pushing him away;
but the boy shook his head and smiled, and went on his way through the
tall yellow corn, seeing as in a vision some day in a fair future when
he should come into that old familiar land and ask Alois of her people,
and be not refused or denied, but received in honor, whilst the village
folk should throng to look upon him and say in one another's ears, "Dost
see him? He is a king among men, for he is a great artist and the world
speaks his name; and yet he was only our poor little Nello, who was a
beggar, as one may say, and only got his bread by the help of his dog."