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glebNormally, I slept through everything-through thunderstorms, through Katz’s snoring and noisy midnight pees-so something big enough or distinctive enough to wake me was unusual. There was a sound of undergrowth being disturbed-a click of breaking branches, a weighty pushing through low foliage-and then a kind of large, vaguely irritable snuffling noise.
Bear!
I sat bolt upright. Instantly every neuron in my brain was awake and dashing around frantically, like ants when you disturb their nest. I reached instinctively for my knife, then realized I had left it in my pack, just outside the tent. Nocturnal defense had ceased to be a concern after many successive nights of tranquil woodland repose. There was another noise, quite near.
“Stephen, you awake?” I whispered.
“Yup,” he replied in a weary but normal voice. “What was that?”
“How the hell should I know.” “It sounded big.”
“Everything sounds big in the woods.”
This was true. Once a skunk had come plodding through our camp and it had sounded like a stegosaurus.
билл брайсон. Прогулка по лесу
Bear!
I sat bolt upright. Instantly every neuron in my brain was awake and dashing around frantically, like ants when you disturb their nest. I reached instinctively for my knife, then realized I had left it in my pack, just outside the tent. Nocturnal defense had ceased to be a concern after many successive nights of tranquil woodland repose. There was another noise, quite near.
“Stephen, you awake?” I whispered.
“Yup,” he replied in a weary but normal voice. “What was that?”
“How the hell should I know.” “It sounded big.”
“Everything sounds big in the woods.”
This was true. Once a skunk had come plodding through our camp and it had sounded like a stegosaurus.
билл брайсон. Прогулка по лесу
