gs wouldn't eat
them.

The first day we let the sheep and cows out, the pine trees were still
heavy with snow. The hill was all white too. It seemed to have come
closer to the farm. All this white dazzled me. I could not find
things in their places, and every moment I was afraid that I should not
see the blue smoke curling up over the farm roofs any longer. The
sheep could not find anything to eat, and ran about searching. I did
not let them scatter too much. They looked like moving snow, and I was
obliged to watch them closely so as not to lose sight of them. I
managed to get them together in a meadow which skirted a big wood. The
whole forest was busy getting rid of the snow which weighed it down.
The big branches threw the snow off at one shake, while the others
which were not so strong, stooped and bent themselves to make it slip
down. I had never been into this forest. I only knew that it was a
very big one, and that Martine sometimes took her sheep there. The
pine trees were very tall, and the ferns grew very high.

I had been watching a big clump of ferns for a long time. I thought I
had seen it move, and I heard a sound come out of it as though a bit of
stick had broken under a footstep. I felt frightened. I thought there
was somebody there. Then I heard the same sound again much nearer, but
without seeing anything move. I tried to reassure myself by saying to
myself that it was a hare, or some other little animal which was
looking for food; but in spite of all I could try to think, I felt
there was somebody there. I felt so nervous that I made up my mind to
go nearer the farm. I had taken two steps towards my sheep when they
huddled together and moved away from the wood. I was looking about to
see what had frightened them, when quite close to me, in the very
middle of the flock, I saw a yellow dog carrying off one of the sheep
in his mouth. My first idea was that Castille had gone mad; but at the
same moment Castille tumbled up against my dress and howled
plaintively. Then I guessed that it was a wolf. It was carrying off a
sheep which it held by the middle of its body. It climbed up a hillock
without any difficulty, and as it jumped the broad ditch which
separated the field from the forest its hind legs made me think of
wings. At that moment I should not have thought it at all
extraordinary if it had flown away over the trees. I stood there for a
few moments, without knowing w