40 A MONTH IN THE FORESTS OF FRANCE. 



mity, this old wolf began to seek his food in broad 

 daylight, and, when the sheep were feeding anywhere 

 near the woods, he would suddenly appear and chase 

 them for a dinner. 



It is the custom, in those cultivated valleys between 

 the woodlands, to send a little girl out in charge of 

 the sheep. One day the old wolf made his usual 

 sortie on the flock; but as the French sheep are 

 better calculated for running than roasting, and every 

 hour at the wolf's age made him slower, he failed to 

 catch his mutton, when, in a state of purblind excite- 

 ment and famine, he seized and killed the only creature 

 not fast enough to escape, and devoured the little girl. 

 A second time he committed a similar outrage ; when, 

 on the alarm reaching the village, and the peasants 

 sallying forth in force, as he retreated from the 

 remains of the poor creature he had killed and partly 

 eaten, the villagers thought, from the way he ran 

 against a portion of the wood, that he was blind. 



For a time nothing more was heard of him ; but 

 he again suddenly appeared in a raid upon the sheep, 

 and, failing to catch one, he, in a third instance, 

 killed a little girl in attendance on them, and had 

 devoured one of her thighs w4ien the villagers came 

 and drove him away. As they bore the poor girl's 

 body to the cottage of mourning, a great quantity of 



