nd that pleased him. He was
wonderfully brave when he was in the midst of his companions or at home
with his brothers and sister, then he used often to say 'One wolf is
nothing, there ought to be at least four.'

When he wrestled with Klas Bogenstrom or Frithiof Waderfelt and struck
them in the back, he would say 'That is what I shall do to a wolf!' and
when he shot arrows at Jonas and they rattled against his sheepskin coat
he would say: 'That is how I should shoot you if you were a wolf!'

Indeed, some thought that the brave boy boasted a little; but one must
indeed believe him since he said so himself. So Jonas and Lena used to
say of him 'Look, there goes Walter, who shoots the wolves.' And other
boys and girls would say 'Look, there goes brave Walter, who is brave
enough to fight with four.'

There was no one so fully convinced of this as Walter himself, and one
day he prepared himself for a real wolf hunt. He took with him his drum,
which had holes in one end since the time he had climbed up on it to
reach a cluster of rowan berries, and his tin sabre, which was a little
broken, because he had with incredible courage fought his way through a
whole unfriendly army of gooseberry bushes.

He did not forget to arm himself quite to the teeth with his pop-gun,
his bow, and his air-pistol. He had a burnt cork in his pocket to
blacken his moustache, and a red cock's feather to put in his cap to
make himself look fierce. He had besides in his trouser pocket a clasp
knife with a bone handle, to cut off the ears of the wolves as soon as
he had killed them, for he thought it would be cruel to do that while
they were still living.

It was such a good thing that Jonas was going with corn to the mill, for
Walter got a seat on the load, while Caro ran barking beside them. As
soon as they came to the wood Walter looked cautiously around him to
see perchance there was a wolf in the bushes, and he did not omit to
ask Jonas if wolves were afraid of a drum. 'Of course they are' (that is
understood) said Jonas. Thereupon Walter began to beat his drum with all
his might while they were going through the wood.

When they came to the mill Walter immediately asked if there had been
any wolves in the neighbourhood lately.

'Alas! yes,' said the miller, 'last night the wolves have eaten our
fattest ram there by the kiln not far from here.'

'Ah!' said Walter, 'do you think that there were many?'

'We don't know,' answered the mille