They were not so much a conscious concern as the whole purpose of her being – lives engendered by her body, created inside her and released through pain and panting upon the world. They troubled her, they were so needy: if she died, they would die too, and soon. She was always briefly astounded, on waking, by their continued presence. She sought that first firm clasp on a stag’s neck, the swift parting of its hide, her mouth filling at last with what was hot and wet and necessary.įor all of life is really recoil and leap, leap and recoil.Īlertness was her new mode, but the cubs’ easy slumber was contagious. In her dreams she slaughtered whole herds. Snaking her long limbs as far as space permitted, she longed to be out on her winding path, ranging wide in search of deer. The damp furry closeness in the crowded den sometimes gave her an overwarm sensation akin to nausea, or boredom.
To be woken, biffed in the face by the paw of a sleeping kitten.
When you are all sinew, struggle and solitude, your young – being soft, plump, vulnerable – may remind you of prey. In this field there are 51 gophers, 206 field mice, 6 snakes and millions of bugs, insects, ants, and spiders. I represent a field you are passing between Grover’s Corners, Ohio, and Parkersburg, Ohio. No country perhaps in the world is better watered with limpid streams and navigable rivers than the United States of America, and no people better deserve those advantages, or are calculated to make a proper use of them than her industrious and adventurous citizens.
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