Now, under one of the hour or duplicate numbers, mark a cross like X. No one but the marker knows the numbers. Each boy, as he draws, looks at his own number, but he must keep it a secret. The numbers must be drawn from a hat, without looking. The undrawn paper belongs to the marker, and he is the boy who holds the hat.
The boy who has drawn the paper marked with the X is "it," and so is regarded as the wolf. He goes off some distance, while the huddled "sheep," as the other players are called, decide what time of day they shall each represent.
When all is ready the wolf calls out in chilling, hungry voice:
"I eat no meat but woolly sheep,
My appetite is good; I thirst,
I think, their blood to drink,
If caught within my wood!"
On hearing this, the sheep set up cries of fear and run to form a circle about the wolf. If the ring is not complete before he gets through the rhyme, he is free to seize any boy who is not holding the hands, on either side, of two other boys.
If the ring is formed and no sheep captured, the sheep circle about the wolf, chanting this song:
"Wolf! Wolf! Wolf! with the brown ear,
Tell us what hour you dine
On one of the sheep assembled here!"
The wolf selects his own hour. If he answers "One o'clock," the sheep bearing that number darts out of the ring with the wolf after him. If this sheep circles the ring three times without being caught, he is safe and takes his old place. The same hour cannot be selected again until all the others have been called.
When the wolf guesses the number corresponding to his own, he does not have to pursue, for his double becomes the wolf, and he is changed into a sheep.
After the game has gone on so far that the number of each is pretty well known, the boys can change numbers without the knowledge of the wolf, and this adds greatly to the sport.