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and took off with it.
    Billy gave Wasser another piece of bacon. "Tell me more about the werewolffen."
    "They are forsaken, outcasts. One is a dog, a female I think. She was tame once, but the other has put his mark on her. He is the werewolf. One night I saw him and he looked at me with yellow eyes in the moonlight. That night I heard the drumming of a drum. In the Revolutionary War, a drummer boy was lost in a storm at Valley Forge. Still he wanders in the night beating his drum. He and the werewolffen hunt together."
    "Can I see them?"
    "Boy, you are so wrong in the head. Why do you want to see them?"
    "I just do. How come if you're a wizard that you haven't got power over them?"
    "A wizard I ain't; I am a braucher or powwow man. I do not fear them, for I know the herbs to carry, the spells to say, and the signs to make. Until you learn them, it will be better for you to have a caution when they are about."
    Billy remembered the sound of feet closing in on him and the ghostly cries, yet in the daylight the creatures seemed somewhat less terrifying.
    "There are only two of them?"
    "That is more than plenty." Abe Zook rose. "Well, you did not come here for the eating only. This morning there are herbs to get. How is the hand feeling?"
    "It's awful sore and I can't use it too well."
    "Do you want to come with me or stay here for once?"
    Billy thought a moment and then rose. "I'll go with you. Sitting here won't make my hand feel any better."
    "So we will put you to some use. Take this." Abe Zook tossed the boy a large basket, putting another on his own back and slipping his arms through its straps as though carrying a knapsack.
    "Can Wasser go too?"
    "It is better for him to stay and watch the farm."
    Abe Zook put some food in his pockets and ran the chains of several traps through his belt. Then he handed the boy a trowel and took one himself.
    As they left the house, Grip called to them from the top of the springhouse and Wasser ran up hopefully, but was ordered to remain. The dog obeyed although with wistful eyes and hopeful tail. Billy managed to rub his head before they left.
    "We follow the path from the main road off," remarked Zook as they climbed the snake fence. They cut through the woods on a path Billy had never seen and followed it until the woods opened, and they looked across a valley where the morning mist still lay caught by the distant ridges. There were half a dozen widely scattered houses with cows grazing on what was left of the pasture. A long line of black dots straggled across the sky, their flight punctuated by caws. The boy, used to the restrictions of the city, looked with wonder at the scene. He felt as though he could see to the end of the world.
    They descended the ridge and picked up a dirt road, now almost covered by dead leaves. Billy amused himself kicking them about and was angrily reprimanded. "Such a shussle! In the woods go quiet. You see more." The boy walked more quietly, looking about him and wanting to ask questions but afraid to talk.
    Bordering the road was a field that had long fallen into disuse and was overgrown with weeds. Abe Zook seemed to know the place and kept looking for something, until with a grunt of satisfaction he climbed the rusty barbed wire by an iron fence post and pulled up a weed that stood slightly higher than the others. Billy had followed him and watched while Zook broke open the spiky pods with his trowel, revealing a mass of small brown seeds.
    "Thorn apple. Never eat it. It is sure death."
    Billy looked at the seeds in awe. "What do you want it for?"
    "A farmer wants to get rid of rats. I cook these seeds with some meat and put it down the holes."
    Billy looked at him suspiciously. "I never know whether you're fooling or not."
    "Neither do I, but it is well to be on the safe side and believe me. Like about owls. They have short tempers and long fingernails."
    "You said I could tame that owl. How do I do it?"
    "You must find his better nature, which is