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<h2> How Brave Walter Hunted Wolves </h2>
<p>A little back from the high road there stands a house which is called
'Hemgard.' Perhaps you remember the two beautiful mountain ash trees by
the reddish-brown palings, and the high gate, and the garden with the
beautiful barberry bushes which are always the first to become grown in
spring, and which in summer are weighed down with their beautiful berries.</p>
<p>Behind the garden there is a hedge with tall aspens which rustle in the
morning wind, behind the hedge is a road, behind the road is a wood, and
behind the wood the wide world.</p>
<p>But on the other side of the garden there is a lake, and beyond the lake
is a village, and all around stretch meadows and fields, now yellow, now
green.</p>
<p>In the pretty house, which has white window-frames, a neat porch and clean
steps, which are always strewn with finely-cut juniper leaves, Walter's
parents live. His brother Frederick, his sister Lotta, old Lena, Jonah,
Caro and Bravo, Putte and Murre, and Kuckeliku.</p>
<p>Caro lives in the dog house, Bravo in the stable, Putte with the
stableman, Murre a little here and a little there, and Kuckeliku lives in
the hen house, that is his kingdom.</p>
<p>Walter is six years old, and he must soon begin to go to school. He cannot
read yet, but he can do many other things. He can turn cartwheels, stand
on his head, ride see-saw, throw snowballs, play ball, crow like a cock,
eat bread and butter and drink sour milk, tear his trousers, wear holes in
his elbows, break the crockery in pieces, throw balls through the
windowpanes, draw old men on important papers, walk over the flower-beds,
eat himself sick with gooseberries, and be well after a whipping. For the
rest he has a good heart but a bad memory, and forgets his father's and
his mother's admonitions, and so often gets into trouble and meets with
adventures, as you shall hear, but first of all I must tell you how brave
he was and how he hunted wolves.</p>
<p>Once in the spring, a little before Midsummer, Walter heard that there
were a great many wolves in the wood, and 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.'</p>
<p>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!'</p>
<p>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.'</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>When they came to the mill Walter immediately asked if there had been any
wolves in the neighbourhood lately.</p>
<p>'Alas! yes,' said the miller, 'last night the wolves have eaten our
fattest ram there by the kiln not far from here.'</p>
<p>'Ah!' said Walter, 'do you think that there were many?'</p>
<p>'We don't know,' answered the miller.</p>
<p>'Oh, it is all the same,' said Walter. 'I only asked so that I should know
if I should take Jonas with me.</p>
<p>'I could manage very well alone with three, but if there were more, I
might not have time to kill them all before they ran away.'</p>
<p>'In Walter's place I should go quite alone, it is more manly,' said Jonas.</p>
<p>'No, it is better for you to come too,' said Walter. 'Perhaps there are
many.'</p>
<p>'No, I have not time,' said Jonas, 'and besides, there are sure not to be
more than three. Walter can manage them very well alone.'</p>
<p>'Yes,' said Walter, 'certainly I could; but, you see, Jonas, it might
happen that one of them might bite me in the back, and I should have more
trouble in killing them. If I only knew that there were not more than two
I should not mind, for them I should take one in each hand and give them a
good shaking, like Susanna once shook me.'</p>
<p>'I certainly think that there will not be more than two,' said Jonas,
'there are never more than two when they slay children and rams; Walter
can very well shake them without me.'</p>
<p>'But, you see, Jonas,' said Walter, 'if there are two, it might still
happen that one of them escapes and bites me in the leg, for you see I am
not so strong in the left hand as in the right. You can very well come
with me, and take a good stick in case there are really two. Look, if
there is only one, I shall take him so with both my hands and thrown him
living on to his back, and he can kick as much as he likes, I shall hold
him fast.'</p>
<p>'Now, when I really think over the thing,' said Jonas, 'I am almost sure
there will not be more than one. What would two do with one ram? There
will certainly not be more than one.'</p>
<p>'But you should come with me all the same, Jonas,' said Walter. 'You see I
can very well manage one, but I am not quite accustomed to wolves yet, and
he might tear holes in my new trousers.'</p>
<p>'Well, just listen,' said Jonas, 'I am beginning to think that Walter is
not so brave as people say. First of all Walter would fight against four,
and then against three, then two, and then one, and now Walter wants help
with one. Such a thing must never be; what would people say? Perhaps they
would think that Walter is a coward?'</p>
<p>'That's a lie,' said Walter, 'I am not at all frightened, but it is more
amusing when there are two. I only want someone who will see how I strike
the wolf and how the dust flies out of his skin.'</p>
<p>'Well, then, Walter can take the miller's little Lisa with him. She can
sit on a stone and look on,' said Jonas.</p>
<p>'No, she would certainly be frightened,' said Walter, 'and how would it do
for a girl to go wolf-hunting? Come with me, Jonas, and you shall have the
skin, and I will be content with the ears and the tail.'</p>
<p>'No, thank you,' said Jonas, 'Walter can keep the skin for himself. Now I
see quite well that he is frightened. Fie, shame on him!'</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 in a corner. Yes, it was not at all safe here,
and there were no other people to be seen in the neighbourhood. It would
be horrible to be eaten up here in the daylight, thought Walter to
himself; and the more he thought about it the uglier and grayer the old
kiln looked, and the more horrible and dreadful it seemed to become the
food of wolves.</p>
<p>'Shall I go back and say that I struck one wolf and it escaped?' thought
Walter. 'Fie!' 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.'</p>
<p>'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.</p>
<p>It looked so dreadful.</p>
<p>'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.</p>
<p>'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...!</p>
<p>Yes, sure enough, just then a shaggy, reddish-brown wolf's head looked out
from under the kiln!</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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....</p>
<p>It was a gruesome tale! Now you may well believe that it was all over with
Walter and all his adventures. That would have been a pity. But do not be
surprised if it was not quite so bad as that, for the wolf was quite a
friendly one. He certainly jumped on to Walter, but he only shook his coat
and rubbed his nose against his face; and Walter shrieked. Yes, he
shrieked terribly!</p>
<p>Happily Jonas heard his cry of distress, for Walter was quite near the
mill now, and he ran and helped him up.</p>
<p>'What has happened?' he asked. 'Why did Walter scream so terribly?'</p>
<p>'A wolf! A wolf!' cried Walter, and that was all he could say.</p>
<p>'Where is the wolf?' said Jonas. 'I don't see any wolf.'</p>
<p>'Take care, he is here, he has bitten me to death,' groaned Walter.</p>
<p>Then Jonas began to laugh; yes, he laughed so that he nearly burst his
skin belt.</p>
<p>Well, well, was that the wolf? Was that the wolf which Walter was to take
by the neck and shake and throw down on its back, no matter how much it
struggled? Just look a little closer at him: he is your old friend, your
own good old Caro. I quite expect he found a leg of the ram in the kiln.
When Walter beat his drum, Caro crept out, and when Walter ran away, Caro
ran after him, as he so often does when Walter wants to romp and play.</p>
<p>'Down, Caro! you ought to be rather ashamed to have put such a great hero
to flight!'</p>
<p>Walter got up feeling very foolish.</p>
<p>'Down, Caro!' he said, both relieved and annoyed.</p>
<p>'It was only a dog, then if it had been a wolf I certainly should have
killed him....'</p>
<p>'If Walter would listen to my advice, and boast a little less, and do a
little more,' said Jonas, consolingly. 'Walter is not a coward, is he?'</p>
<p>'I! You shall see, Jonas, when we next meet a bear. You see I like so much
better to fight with bears.'</p>
<p>'Indeed!' laughed Jonas. 'Are you at it again?</p>
<p>'Dear Walter, remember that it is only cowards who boast; a really brave
man never talks of his bravery.'</p>
<p>From Z. Topelius.</p>
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