Little Philippe of Belgium

LITTLE PHILIPPE OF BELGIUM

LITTLE PHILIPPE
of BELGIUM

BY
MADELINE BRANDEIS

Author of

"Little Indian Weaver"
"The Wee Scotch Piper"
"The Little Dutch Tulip Girl"
"The Little Swiss Wood-Carver"

Photographic Illustrations Made in Belgium by the Author

GROSSET & DUNLAP
publishersnew york

By Arrangement with the A. Flanagan Company

copyright, 1930, by a. flanagan company

printed in the united states of america

When I began to write these stories about children ofall lands I had just returned from Europe whither I journeyedwith Marie and Ref. Maybe you don't know Marieand Ref. I'll introduce them: Please meet Marie, my verylittle daughter, and Ref, my very big reflex camera.

These two are my helpers. Marie helps by being a littlegirl who knows what other little girls like and by tellingme; and Ref helps by snapping pictures of everythinginteresting that Marie and I see on our travels. I couldn'tget along without them.

Several years have gone by since we started our worktogether and Marie is a bigger girl—but Ref hasn'tchanged one bit. Ref hasn't changed any more than my interestin writing these books for you. And I hope that youhope that I'll never change, because I want to keep onwriting until we'll have no more countries to write about—unless,of course, some one discovers a new country.

Even if a new country isn't discovered, we'll find foreignchildren to talk about—maybe the children in Mars! Whoknows? Nobody. Not even Marie—and Marie usuallyknows about most things. That's the reason why, you see,though I sign myself

I am really only                                

Marie's Mother.

DEDICATION

Because she likes "scarey" stories, because she likes thisone best of all my books, because I like her best of all—well,just because she's my dear little daughter, I dedicatethis book to

Marie Madeleine Brandeis.

CONTENTS