in winders lea, dwelt a boy,
who over his head did toil,
-nothing than his flock.
but one morning, while tending,
and speaking to his flock,
he saw a wolf in the mountains,
who strolled and was planted in his thought.
he gathered quickly his lambs to a hide (tent),
and while he kept them,-
over his head did toil,
‘the men with the lion’s skin,
and the girls all about him,
and how his lambs and cattle smiled
and felt protected in his shade’
he looked at the faces of his own,
and their fear stared him back in the face’
and put his listening to their heart,
to did hear their fright.
and when he slept that night,
he dreamt of all the honors a wild cat hide can earn,
and dreamt of his flock dancing and leaping…
and he dreamt, that he woke to such thoughts,
to set the field ablaze,
for if he goes up the mountain, grazing-
he may be asked, why he didn’t graze his sheep in the array acre of grass before the mountain…
so at night, the little boy went, and set the grasses on fire.
the grasses that was for all…
so he took his club, and stone and sling
and went up the mountain, for the wolf out of his path…
and flocked his tired lambs around,
searching and searching for the wolf,
and soon he caught the wolf in a cave up there,
nursing her cubs, distracted by their needs,
so he kept his lambs in the distance,
as he went to club the wolf to death…
the boy clubbed her cubs too, and kept in his bag,
and returned to his lambs,
only to find them dead of exhaustion,
from the smoke and hunger,
and other beast that came while he sought the wolf…
now he descended with the dead wolfs, but not his lambs,
and as he walked through his town,
he said to men, ‘here is the wolf that killed them all’
and the men gathered, with their bows and guns
and marched upon the mountains,
and killed many a beast, for fear their own…
and returned they did, with their bodies
and kept them their hides.
and so in this town of winders call,
the hide of a wild cat became so common that it lost its value…
and so lost this shepherd, his flock, without gaining a thing.
but the dead of the mountains, had their spirit a roam,
and the lambs that now has to walk a thousand miles to feed,
all did curse the one that set the field ablaze.
