figures moving over the low bushes.

In the sheeny moonlight you could see how they moved on, slowly and
furtively; the short one, and the one in light clothes, and the one in
dark.

"I cannot help them now!" she cried, and sank down on the ground, with her
little hands clasped before her.

...

"Awake, awake!" said the farmer's wife; "I hear a strange noise; something
calling, calling, calling!"

The man rose, and went to the window.

"I hear it also," he said; "surely some jackal's at the sheep. I will load
my gun and go and see."

"It sounds to me like the cry of no jackal," said the woman; and when he
was gone she woke her daughter.

"Come, let us go and make a fire, I can sleep no more," she said; "I have
heard a strange thing tonight. Your father said it was a jackal's cry, but
no jackal cries so. It was a child's voice, and it cried, 'Master, master,
wake!'"

The women looked at each other; then they went to the kitchen, and made a
great fire; and they sang psalms all the while.