The Monster

เนื้อเรื่อง

This is the story of a little boy and remarkable animal.Eric, aged seven, his sister and his parents have come to live in a lonely part of Alaska. Eric is caught in a sudden snowstoem and runs for shelter to a hut made of grass turf. He only just manages to reach it.

               He collapsed face down on the threshold,gasping for breath. The first thing he noticed was the smell and for a second he drew back, uncertain. Then the gravel beat stinging against his lags, and he squirmed quickly in.
               The hut was small and dark; it had no window or chimney; its door was simply a couple of movable turves which Eric, from the inside, now hauled-to to keep out the wind. As the turves were pulled in the moan of the storm faded, the last glimmer of light was snuffed out, and the smell - strong and piercing - rose pungently out of dark. On the far side of the sod hut something moved.
               The little boy peered into the darkness, suddenly afraid. Twin circles of fire swayed up from the floor; twin balls of red aglow like coal in the dark. And Eric shrank back, appalled. Something was in the sod hut; some wild and the terrible animal - perhaps a great Kodiak bear with foot - long claws that could rip the guts from a caribou in a single slash. He spun around. He tore at the door turves. Then he remembered the storm.
                He stood very still, teeth clenched, eyes screwed tight. Waiting. But the wild and terrible animal didn\'t spring at him. Everything was motionless and very quiet - everything except his heart which was pounding in frightened leaps between mouth and stomach, and after a while even the pound of his heart sank to a muffled uncertain throb. Hesitantly he unscrewed his eyes, ready to snap them shut the moment the animal moved. But  the circles of red were motionless. The creature - whatever it was - kept to the farther side of thr hut.
                He peered into the blackness. At first he could see only the red of the eyes, but gradually as he became accustomed to the dark he could make out more: a shadowy mass, coiled and menacing, stretching almost a third of way round the wall. The animal was large; but - to his unspeakable relief - it wasn\'t thickset and solid enought to be bear. He began to breathe more easily.
                After a while he became conscious of a faint persistent sound: a sound so low that it had been drowned up yo now by the thud of his heart and the background moan of the storm. It was a sucky,slobbery sound: a sound he had heart before - years and years ago associations were pleasant. His fear began to go away. Perhaps the creature was friendly; perhaps it would let him stay ; perhaps the hut was a refuge they could both, in time of emergency, share.
                His mind sezied onto the idear, thankfully. He remembered a picture in one of his story books: a picture of a little boy (no older than his was) and all sorts of different animals
lying together on a flood-ringed island; and he remembered hisfather reading the caption, \'Then the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the bird, and the young lion and the fatling together\', and he remembered his father explaining that in times of great danger - fire or flood, tempest or drought - all living things reverted to their natural state and lived peacefully together until the danger was passed. This he told himself, must be such a time.
                 He stared at the glowing eyes. And quite suddenly his fear was submerged in a great flood of curiosity. What was this strange red-eyed creature? It was too big for a fox or a hare, and not thr right shape for a bear or a caribou. If only he could see it!
                 He remembered then that somewhere in every hut his father had placed matches and candles.
                 An older boy would have hesitated now. An older boy would have second thoughts and a legacy of fear. But to Eric things were uncomplicated. He had been frighted, but that was in the past: now he was curious. For a little boy of seven it was as simple as that.
                 He felt round the wall till his hand struck a metal box. He prized off the lid. He found and lie one of the candles. A flickering light leapt round the hut. And the little boy\'s breath stuck in his throat and he could only stare. For never in all his life had he seen anything so beautiful.
                 She lay curled up against the wall; a sinuous seven-foot golden seal, her fur like a field of sun-drenched corn; and clinging to her teats two soft-furred, their eyes still closed.
                 Holding the candle high fear, his fear quite lost in wonder, he walked towards her.