Fie , shame on him ! ' This touched Walter 's pride very near . ' I shall show that I am not frightened , ' he said ; and so he took his drum , sabre , cock 's feather , clasp-knife , pop-gun and air-pistol , and went off quite alone to the wood to hunt wolves . It was a beautiful evening , and the birds were singing in all the branches . Walter went very slowly and cautiously . At every step he looked all round him to see if perchance there was anything lurking behind the stones . He quite thought something moved away there in the ditch . Perhaps it was a wolf . ` It is better for me to beat the drum a little before I go there , ' thought Walter . Br-r-r , so he began to beat his drum . Then something moved again . Caw ! caw ! a crow flew up from the ditch . Walter immediately regained courage . ` It was well I took my drum with me , ' he thought , and went straight on with courageous steps . Very soon he came quite close to the kiln , where the wolves had killed the ram . But the nearer he came the more dreadful he thought the kiln looked . It was so gray and old . Who knew how many wolves there might be hidden there ?
Perhaps the very ones which killed the ram were still sitting there XXXXX a corner .
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