ruelty to animals, but catching his eye I smiled, and
said something about "_ces bons chiens_," at which he seemed relieved,
and nodded back grinning, but he did not remove the stogie from his
mouth.

Priests in Flanders seemed to enjoy much liberty of action, and do
things not possible elsewhere. For instance, at Blankenberghe, a
fashionable watering place on the coast, I saw a prosperous, well-fed
one (if I may so characterize him without meaning any offense) dining at
the Great Gasthof on the digue, who after finishing his _filet aux
champignons_, with a bottle of _Baune superior_, ordered his "_demi
tasse_" with _fine champagne_, and an Havana cigar which cost him not
less than three francs (sixty cents) which he smoked like a connoisseur
while he listened to the fine military band playing in the Kiosk. And
why not, if you please?

We remained for nearly twenty minutes beside this white wall at the
roadside, the animated discussions of the farmers continuing, for the
group was constantly augmented by fresh arrivals who meant to travel
with us or back to the town from which we had come. It was here that we
saw the first stork in Flanders, where indeed they are uncommon. This
one had a nest in a large tree nearby. One of the boys shied a small
stone at him as he flapped overhead, but, I think, without any idea of
hitting him. The peasants assembled here eyed us narrowly. They probed
me and my belongings with eyes of corkscrew penetration, but since this
country of theirs was a show place to me, I argued that I had no right
to object to their making in return a show of me. But such scrutiny is
not comfortable, especially if one is seated in a narrow compartment,
and the open-mouthed _vis a vis_ gazes at one with steely bluish green
unwinking eyes--somewhat red rimmed. Especially if such scrutiny is
accompanied by free comments upon one's person, delivered in a voice so
pitched as to convey the information to all the other occupants, and
mayhap the engine driver ahead.

The other train at length arrived, there was an interchange of occupants
and then we proceeded amid heavy clouds of thick black smoke which, for
a time, the wind blew with us. Across the tilled fields are narrow paths
leading to dykes and roads. There are many green ditches filled with
water and in them we could see rather heavy splashes from time to time.
These we discovered were made by large green bull frogs--really monsters
they were, too. Of cour