It would keep getting out of the barn, and we’d warned it often enough. Even so, we were still upset when we heard it baaing, and the chewing and swallowing noises of the wild beast.We were even more upset when the wild beast finished eating the foolish sheep and looked at us through the keyhole. In fact, we were so upset we couldn’t eat a thing ourselves – even though Peter and Marie had made a tasty mutton stew – and we went to bed hungry.Our bunks were like cupboards built into the walls either side of the fireplace in one end of Aunt Effie’s kitchen. We pulled across the little sliding doors but could still hear the wild beast growling and cracking the foolish sheep’s bones. Every now and then it swallowed noisily, smacked its lips, looked through the keyhole, and howled, “Ooowhooooo!” For once, Alwyn didn’t howl back. In the middle of the night, Daisy, our self-righteous cousin, woke up and had hysterics when she dreamt the wild beast wouldn’t let us out of the house.
