The Lilac Fairy Book, part 7 · page 21 2101WE should never have wanted to know what was in the soup-tureen!’102From ‘Litterature Orale de l’Auvergne,’ par Paul Sebillot.103How Brave Walter Hunted Wolves104A little back from the high road there stands a house which is called ‘Hemgard.’105Perhaps 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.106Behind 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.107But 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.108In 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.109His brother Frederick, his sister Lotta, old Lena, Jonah, Caro and Bravo, Putte and Murre, and Kuckeliku.110Caro 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.111Walter is six years old, and he must soon begin to go to school.112He cannot read yet, but he can do many other things.113He 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.114For 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.115Once in the spring, a little before Midsummer, Walter heard that there were a great many wolves in the wood, and that pleased him.116He 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.’117When 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!’118Indeed, some thought that the brave boy boasted a little; but one must indeed believe him since he said so himself.119So Jonas and Lena used to say of him ‘Look, there goes Walter, who shoots the wolves.’120And other boys and girls would say ‘Look, there goes brave Walter, who is brave enough to fight with four.’121There was no one so fully convinced of this as Walter himself, and one day he prepared himself for a real wolf hunt.122He 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.123He did not forget to arm himself quite to the teeth with his pop-gun, his bow, and his air-pistol.124He 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.125He 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.126It 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.checked by a teacher127As 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.128‘Of course they are’ (that is understood) said Jonas.129Thereupon Walter began to beat his drum with all his might while they were going through the wood.130When they came to the mill Walter immediately asked if there had been any wolves in the neighbourhood lately.131‘Alas! yes,’ said the miller, ‘last night the wolves have eaten our fattest ram there by the kiln not far from here.’132‘Ah!’ said Walter, ‘do you think that there were many?’133‘We don’t know,’ answered the miller.134‘Oh, it is all the same,’ said Walter.135‘I only asked so that I should know if I should take Jonas with me.136‘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.’137‘In Walter’s place I should go quite alone, it is more manly,’ said Jonas.1 2← previousThe Lilac Fairy Book, part 6next →The Lilac Fairy Book, part 8↑ back to The Lilac Fairy BookThis page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/7/page/2/