LEGEND OF AN OLD WOLF. 4l 



blood flowed from the arteries of the torn limb, and 

 dropped upon the road, and on the threshold of the 

 door whence the poor child but a few hours before 

 had passed in all the health and vivacity of youth. 



As is the custom, during the night an old woman 

 sat up with the corpse ; when, in the very witching 

 hour " when churchyards yawn and graves give up 

 their dead," while the rest of the villagers were 

 buried in repose, the night pitch dark and airless, as 

 if nature feared yet listened for an approaching 

 thunderstorm, the old woman was roused from her 

 lonely vigil over the dead by a sullen but approaching 

 sound, as of the long heavy gallop of some large 

 animal coming down the road straight to the cottage- 

 door. Stride by stride, more audibly and nearer it 

 came ; the old woman in a frenzy of terror, rose as 

 the result became evident, and as she rose some crea- 

 ture rushed against the portal with a blow like that 

 of a sledo;e-hammer, shook the door from latch and 

 lock to its very foundation, and then seemed to fall 

 back from the force of the concussion. More dead 

 than alive, the old woman then heard what seemed to 

 her a low growl or moan of pain and disappointment, 

 and a heavy, slow, and perhaps limping, trotting 

 footfall, as the creature retreated in the direction 

 whence it had arrived. In the morning the pad of 



