said his conscience , ` Do you not remember that a lie is one of the worst sins , both in the sight of God and man ? If you tell a lie to-day and say you struck a wolf , to-morrow surely it will eat you up . ' ` No , I will go to the kiln , ' thought Walter , and so he went . But he did not go quite near . He went only so near that he could see the ram 's blood which coloured the grass red , and some tufts of wool which the wolves had torn from the back of the poor animal . It looked so dreadful . ' I wonder what the ram thought when they ate him up , ' thought Walter to himself ; and just then a cold shiver ran through him from his collar right down to his boots . ` It is better for me to beat the drum , ' he thought to himself again , and so he began to beat it . But it sounded horrid , and an echo came out from the kiln that seemed almost like the howl of a wolf . The drumsticks stiffened in Walter 's hands , and he thought now they are coming ... ! Yes , sure enough , just then a shaggy , reddish-brown wolf 's head looked out from under the kiln ! What did Walter do now ? Yes , the brave Walter who alone could manage four , threw his drum far away , took to his heels and ran , and ran as fast as he could back to the mill . But , alas ! the wolf ran after him . Walter looked back ; the wolf was quicker than he and only a few steps behind him . Then Walter ran faster . But fear got the better of him , he neither heard nor saw anything more . He ran over sticks , stones and ditches ; he lost drum-sticks , sabre , bow , and air-pistol , and in his terrible hurry he tripped over a tuft of grass . There he lay , and the wolf jumped on to him ... It was a gruesome tale !
Now you may well believe that it was all over with XXXXX and all his adventures .
Walter air-pistol boots ditches drum-sticks heels kiln mill right tuft