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tail between his legs. He ran, in fact, for his life, an open-mouthed bristling pig hard on his heels.
     
    The field was clear, and Babe suddenly came back to his senses. He turned and hurried to the fallen ewe, round whom, now that the dogs had gone, the horrified flock was beginning to gather in a rough circle. She lay still now, as Babe stood panting by her side, a draggled side where the worriers had pulled at it, and suddenly he realised. It was Ma!
     
    "Ma!" he cried. "Ma! Are you all right?"
     
    She did not seem too badly hurt. He could not see any gaping wounds, though blood was coming from one ear where the dogs had bitten it.
     
    The old ewe opened an eye. Her voice, when she spoke, was as hoarse as ever, but now not much more than a whisper.
     
    "Hullo, young un," she said.
     
    Babe dropped his head and gently licked the ear to try to stop the bleeding, and some blood stuck to his snout.
     
    "Can you get up?" he asked.
     
    For some time Ma did not answer, and he looked anxiously at her, but the eye that he could see was still open.
     
    "I don't reckon," she said.
     
    "It's all right, Ma," Babe said. "The wolves have gone, far away."
     
    "Far, far, fa-a-a-a-a-ar!" chorused the flock.
     
    "And Fly and the boss will soon be here to look after you."
     
    Ma made no answer or movement. Only her ribs jumped to the thump of her tired old heart.
     
    "You'll be all right, honestly you will," said Babe.
     
    "Oh ar," said Ma, and then the eye closed and the ribs jumped no more.
     
    "Oh Ma!" said Babe, and "Ma! Ma! Ma-a-a-a-a-a!" mourned the flock, as the Land Rover came up the lane.
     
    Farmer Hogget had heard nothing of the worrying--the field was too far away, the wind in the wrong direction--but he had been anxious, and so by now had Fly, because Pig was nowhere to be found.
     
    The moment they entered the field both man and dog could see that something was terribly wrong. Why else was the flock so obviously distressed, panting and gasping and dishevelled? Why had they formed that ragged circle, and what was in the middle of it? Farmer Hogget strode forward, Fly before him parting the ring to make way, only to see a sight that struck horror into the hearts of both.
     
    There before them lay a dead ewe, and bending over it was the pig, his snout almost touching the outstretched neck, a snout, they saw, that was stained with blood.
     
     

Chapter 9
     
    "Was it Babe?"
     
    "Go home, Pig!" said Farmer Hogget in a voice that was so quiet and cold that Babe hardly recognised it. Bewildered, he trotted off obediently, while behind him the farmer picked up the dead ewe and carried it to the Land Rover. Then with Fly's help he began the task of rescuing those sheep that were caught or stuck, and of making sure that no others were badly hurt. This done, he left Fly to guard the flock, and drove home.
     
    Back at the farm, Babe felt simply very very sad. The sky was still cloudless, the air still crisp, but this was a very different pig from the one that had cantered carefree up the hill not half an hour ago. In those thirty minutes he had seen naked fear and cruelty and death, and now to cap it all, the boss was angry with him, had sent him home in some sort of disgrace. What had he done wrong? He had only done his duty, as a good sheep-pig should. He sat in the doorway of the stables and watched as the Land Rover drove into the yard, poor Ma's head lolling loosely over the back. He saw the boss get out and go into the house, and then, a few minutes later, come out again, carrying something in the crook of one arm, a long thing, a kind of black shiny tube, and walk towards him.
     
    "Come, Pig," said Farmer Hogget in that same cold voice, and strode past him into the stables, while at the same moment, inside the farmhouse, the telephone began to ring, and then stopped as Mrs Hogget picked it up.
     
    Obediently Babe followed the farmer into the dark interior. It was not so dark however that he could not see