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“One morning, as I went out to the hill meadows, I found that some of my finest sheep had disappeared. I called them, and I wandered the woods searching for them, but they were not to be found. Then a herdman came to me and said that he had found blood and wool in one place, and sheep bones in another, and that he felt sure that the missing sheep had been destroyed by powerful wolves.

“In a few days other sheep were missing. Day by day passed, and I lost in a few months a great number of sheep.

“One morning I went out to the sheepfolds, and found that some animal had killed a whole flock of sheep.

“‘It is a she-wolf that is the destroyer’ said a herdman, ‘a witch-wolf, it may be. Would you dare to attack her?’

“My brain was fired. There lay my sheep killed without a purpose, by some animal in which had grown a thirst for blood.

“‘Yes, yes—’ said I, ‘wolf or demon, whatever it be, I will give my feet no rest until I hold its tongue in my own hands, and that I will do. I have force in my head, and iron in my hands. Call the neighbors together and let us have a wolf hunt.’

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