It was the morning of Christmas Eve.
Nello woke up and shivered.
It was freezing inside the little hut.
Nello held onto his closest friend, and his tears dropped onto the great dog's forehead.
"Let's go, Patrasche," Nello murmured.
"We won't wait to be kicked out."
They stepped outside into the cold.
Patrasche hung his head as he passed the little green cart.
It didn't belong to him anymore.
The farmer who owned the hut was taking it for the rent.
He was taking everything else in the hut too.
Nello and Patrasche walked the long road into Antwerp.
It was the same road they had walked to deliver milk every day.
It was still early morning.
The windows were closed on most of the houses along the road.
In a few houses, people were awake.
At one house, the door stood open a little.
Inside, an old woman was cooking breakfast.
Nello's grandfather, Jehan, had been kind to her many times.
"Do you have any leftovers for Patrasche?" Nello called timidly from the door.
"He's old, and he's eaten nothing since yesterday."
The old woman shut the door quickly, murmuring about the high price of flour.
Nello and Patrasche kept walking.
They didn't stop at any more houses.
It was ten o'clock in the morning when they reached Antwerp.
"I wish I had something I could sell, so I could buy some bread for Patrasche," thought Nello.
But Nello had nothing, except the clothes he wore and his wooden shoes.
Somehow Patrasche understood.
He knew that Nello longed to ease his hunger and aches.
He put his nose into Nello's hand.
"Please, don't worry about me," he seemed to say.
The winner of the art competition was to be announced at noon.
Nello and Patrasche walked toward the public building in the middle of town.
There, many young people crowded the steps and waited in the street.
Some boys were older than Nello, and some were younger.
All of them were with parents or friends.
Nello's heart was sick with fear as he found an empty place on the steps.
He held Patrasche close.
At noon, the great bells of Antwerp's City Hall rang loudly.
The doors at the top of the stairs opened.
The crowd rushed forward.
The winning picture would be displayed high on a wall inside the entrance.
Nello looked up, but he couldn't see.
Too many people were in the way.
Everyone was stretching and pushing to see the winning picture.
At last the crowd thinned and he saw it!
It was not his.
Nello felt dizzy.
With Patrasche's help, he staggered outside.
"It's all over, Patrasche," Nello murmured. "All over."
They both felt weak from lack of food, and walked slowly back to the village.
Snow was starting to fall, and a storm was coming.
It was four o'clock when they reached the village.
Suddenly, Patrasche stopped.
He smelled something in the snow.
He pushed his nose into the snow and picked up a small leather bag with his teeth.
Patrasche gave the bag to Nello.
Nello looked at it closely.
The name on the bag said Master Cogez.
Inside was two thousand francs ─ enough to buy a small farm!