occurred, for they will
afford you more pleasure in that way.

_Scip._ Very well; tell me what you will and how you will, but be brief.

_Berg._ I say, then, that I was pleased with my duty as a guardian of
the flock, for it seemed to me that in that way I ate the bread of
industry, and that sloth, the root and mother of all vices, came not
nigh me; for if I rested by day, I never slept at night, the wolves
continually assailing us and calling us to arms. The instant the
shepherds said to me, "The wolf! the wolf! at him, Barcino," I dashed
forward before all the other dogs, in the direction pointed out to me by
the shepherds. I scoured the valleys, searched the mountains, beat the
thickets, leaped the gullies, crossed the roads, and on the morning
returned to the fold without having caught the wolf or seen a glimpse of
him, panting, weary, all scratched and torn, and my feet cut with
splinters; and I found in the fold either a ewe or a wether slaughtered
and half eaten by the wolf. It vexed me desperately to see of what
little avail were all my care and diligence. Then the owner of the flock
would come; the shepherds would go out to meet him with the skin of the
slaughtered animal: the owner would scold the shepherds for their
negligence, and order the dogs to be punished for cowardice. Down would
come upon us a shower of sticks and revilings; and so, finding myself
punished without fault, and that my care, alertness, and courage were of
no avail to keep off the wolf, I resolved to change my manner of
proceeding, and not to go out to seek him, as I had been used to do, but
to remain close to the fold; for since the wolf came to it, that would
be the surest place to catch him. Every week we had an alarm; and one
dark night I contrived to get a sight of the wolves, from which it was
so impossible to guard the fold. I crouched behind a bank; the rest of
the dogs ran forward; and from my lurking-place I saw and heard how two
shepherds picked out one of the fattest wethers, and slaughtered it in
such a manner, that it really appeared next morning as if the
executioner had been a wolf. I was horror-struck, when I saw that the
shepherds themselves were the wolves, and that the flock was plundered
by the very men who had the keeping of it. As usual, they made known to
their master the mischief done by the wolf, gave him the skin and part
of the carcase, and ate the rest, and that the choicest part,
themselves. As usual, they