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 of all lands I had just returned from Europe whither I journeyed with Marie and Ref. Maybe you don't know Marie and Ref. I'll introduce them: Please meet Marie, my very little daughter, and Ref, my very big reflex camera.

These two are my helpers. Marie helps by being a little girl who knows what other little girls like and by telling me; and Ref helps by snapping pictures of everything interesting that Marie and I see on our travels. I couldn't get along without them.

Several years have gone by since we started our work together and Marie is a bigger girl—but Ref hasn't changed one bit. Ref hasn't changed any more than my interest in writing these books for you. And I hope that you hope that I'll never change, because I want to keep on writing 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 foreign children to talk about—maybe the children in Mars! Who knows? Nobody. Not even Marie—and Marie usually knows 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 this one best of all my books, because I like her best of all—well, just because she's my dear little daughter, I dedicate this book to

Marie Madeleine Brandeis.

CONTENTS