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!'

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.'

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.

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.

It was such a good thing that Jonas was going with corn to the