this touched walter 's pride very near . ' i shall show that i am not frightened , ' he said . and so he took his drum , sabre , cock 's feather , clasp - knife , pop - gun and air - pistol , and went off quite alone to the wood to hunt wolves . it was a beautiful evening , and the birds were singing in all the branches . walter went very slowly and cautiously . at every step he looked all round him to see if perchance there was anything lurking behind the stones . he quite thought something moved away there in the ditch . perhaps it was a wolf . ' it is better for me to beat the drum a little before i go there , ' thought walter . br - r - r , so he began to beat his drum . then something moved again . caw ! caw ! a crow flew up from the ditch . walter immediately regained courage . ' it was well i took my drum with me , ' he thought , and went straight on with courageous steps . very soon he came quite close to the kiln , where the wolves had killed the ram . but the nearer he came the more dreadful he thought the kiln looked . it was so gray and old . who knew how many wolves there might be hidden there ? perhaps the very ones which killed the ram were still sitting there in a corner . yes , it was not at all safe here , and there were no other people to be seen in the neighbourhood . it would be horrible to be eaten up here in the daylight , thought walter to himself . the more he thought about it the uglier and grayer the old kiln looked , and the more horrible and dreadful it seemed to become the food of wolves .
he thought there was a wolf .
why did walter beat his drum ?
why did walter beat his drum ?