Chapter 77 Burrow (1)

I made the hole, and it seems to be a success.From the outside you can only see a big hole, but it doesn't lead anywhere, and after a few steps you run into hard natural rock.I have no intention of showing off my deliberate gimmick, and this is rather a remnant of one of the many fruitless attempts at making holes in the past, but after all I think there is merit in leaving a hole unburied.Of course some tricks are self-defeating, and I know that better than anyone else.It must have been a risk to leave this opening as a reminder of what might be going on here.Anyone who thinks I'm timid, who thinks that I probably only made my hole out of cowardice, looks down on me.The real entrance to the burrow was about a thousand paces from the entrance, concealed by a removable lichen, as safe as anything in this world could be.Doubtless someone might step on this lichen or knock it off, and my burrow would be clear, and anyone interested could break in and destroy everything forever, but it should Note that certain rare talents are required to do this.I know that very well, my life is now at its peak, but even so there is hardly a moment of total tranquility, I will die in that place under the dark lichen, and in my dreams there is often a greedy nose He kept sniffing and sniffing there.

You will think that I could have blocked the entrance, with a thin layer of hard earth above, and softer soil below, so that I could re-open the way out at any time without much effort.It was impossible, however, and it was prudence that required me to be able to get out at once, and it was prudence that required—so many times, unfortunately—to risk my life.It all depends on rather difficult calculations, and the self-appreciation of an astute mind is often the only reason it can go on.I must have the conditions to run out immediately. No matter how vigilant I am, I will be attacked from a completely unexpected direction, isn't it?I lived a peaceful life in the innermost part of my cave, while the enemy was slowly approaching me from a certain direction with his hole digging out a hole during this period.I don't want to say that he has a better sense of smell than I do.Maybe he knows as little about me as I do about him.But some carnivores are aggressive, and they're burrowing all over the ground, and my burrow is huge, and they hope to bump into a passage of mine somewhere.Of course, I have the advantage of being at home, familiar with all passages and directions.The interloper might have been an easy prey to me, a sweet-tasting prey.But I will be old, there are men stronger than me, and my enemies are countless, and it may happen that I escape from one enemy and fall into the clutches of another.Well, anything can happen!But at any rate I should be convinced that there is a very convenient and unobstructed exit somewhere, and I can get out of it without a little trouble, so that I am not there while digging desperately (although It's easy to dig up the soil) and suddenly—God bless me! —feeling the teeth of my pursuer on my thigh.Not only are there enemies threatening me outside, but there are also such enemies underground.I have never seen them, but those legends tell of them, and I believe them firmly.Those who live underground, even legends cannot describe them.Even if they have fallen victim to them, they are hardly seen.They are here, and the ground is where they show their talents. If you hear the sound of their sharp claws scratching the soil under you, then you are hopeless.At this time, it is useless to stay in your own home, or rather stay in their home.Even that outlet wouldn't save me if I came across them, maybe it wasn't saving me at all but destroying me, but it was a hope and I couldn't live without it.In addition to this wide passage, there are narrower and less dangerous passages that connect me with the outside world and provide me with fresh air.They were made by the forest rats, and I have arranged them in my burrow with adroitness.They also allow me to smell from a distance, giving me protection.Small animals of all kinds come to me through them, too, and they are my food, so that I can hunt enough small animals to support my modest life without ever leaving my burrow, which is certainly valuable.

The great advantage of my burrow is its silence.Of course, this silence is false, and it may end suddenly, and it will be over, but for the time being the silence remains.I can turn silently in my passage for hours, and now and then a small animal will make a rustling sound, and I will immediately let him be quiet between my sharp teeth, and sometimes there will be a rustling sound. the sound, which indicated to me that some kind of repair must be done, other than that I could hear nothing, and the cave was silent.The breeze from the forest blows in, which is both warm and cool.Sometimes I stretch my limbs and spin around in delight in the passage.With such a burrow, there is shelter when autumn comes, which is not bad for the approaching old age.In these passages, I expanded a small round nest every 100 meters. I can curl up comfortably in these places, use my own body temperature to keep warm, rest, and have a peaceful and peaceful sleep. A beautiful sleep when the requirements are met, and a beautiful sleep after the cave master achieves his goal.I don't know if this is a habit of the past, or if the danger facing this hole is great enough to wake me up: I often wake up from a deep sleep, prick up my ears to listen, and what I hear is still day and night hanging over here. In the silence, I smiled reassuringly, relaxed my limbs and fell into a deeper dreamland.Those poor vagabonds have nowhere to go but the high roads and forests, where at best they creep into a pile of fallen leaves, or among their companions, to be wrecked by heaven and earth!Here I lie, in a place that is secure on all sides—there are more than fifty such places in my burrow—choosing times at random, between slumbering and stupor. its passing.

My main den is not in the middle of the burrow, and it is mainly used for the most dangerous situations, which are not exactly being tracked, but being surrounded.Whereas in all other places it was probably more labor than physical effort, this fortress was the result of the most strenuous physical labor which employed every part of my body.Several times when I was so exhausted that I was ready to give up everything, I fell on my back and cursed the burrow, and I dragged myself out and left the burrow open.I can do that, because I'm not going back there.When I returned hours or days later regretting it, I almost sang an anthem in praise of the hole being intact, and I resumed my work with genuine joy.The place where the fort is planned to be built is sandy soil, which is quite soft. The soil must be pounded hard to build a beautiful arched and large round dimple. For this reason, the construction of the fort is more difficult than necessary. Unnecessary means, The burrow gets no real benefit from this useless labour.I can only use my forehead for such work, that is to say, I have struck the earth with my forehead thousands of times, day and night, and I will be happy if my blood stains it red, because it is The proof that the walls of the cave have begun to strengthen, everyone will admit that this is how I earned my fortress.

In this fort I kept my stores, everything I caught in burrows, everything I brought back from hunting, except the usual necessities.This site is so big that even half a year's reserves are not enough.So I can spread them out, walk between them, play with them, admire their numbers and variety of smells, and have a quick glance at the existing stock at any time.I can readjust at any time in the future, make some necessary budgets according to the season, and make some hunting plans.Some days I'm so well fed that I don't care about the little ones running around here because I don't care about it anymore.However, for other reasons, it may be ill-advised to do so.As a result of frequent defensive preparations, my views on how to use burrows for defense have changed, or developed, but only slightly.Sometimes I feel that it is dangerous to completely rely on fortresses for defense. The variety of caves provides me with various possibilities. I think it is more prudent to disperse the reserves and put them in some small dens, so I decided to use every third litter as a reserve storage, or every fourth litter as a primary storage, every second litter as a secondary storage, and so on.Or to confuse, and also to stockpile, I blocked some passages, or completely adopted the method of jumping, and only selected a few small nests according to their respective positional relationship with the main exit.Yet each new plan of this kind involved heavy porting, and I had to recalculate and move the stock over and over again.Of course, I can take my time and do it slowly. Besides, I can rest wherever I want with something good in my mouth, and I can eat something delicious secretly if I encounter it. This is not such a bad thing.Sometimes, usually when I wake up from a dream, I feel that the current division is not suitable at all, and it will lead to great danger, so I don’t care about drowsiness and fatigue, and I have to correct it as soon as possible. It's bad.So I ran and ran, so I walked like flying, so I didn't have time to count.Desperate to implement a completely precise new plan, I picked up whatever happened to be in my mouth, dragged, carried, sighed, groaned, staggered, just casually changed the current situation that I felt very Dangerous situation, I will be content.As the drowsiness receded completely and I calmed down, I could hardly comprehend the haste, and I breathed deeply into my body the tranquility of the hole I had broken, and returned to my sleeping place, feeling tired again, and at once I fell asleep and woke up with a mouse in my teeth. At this time, the night labor had become like a dream. This mouse was probably an indisputable piece of evidence.Then I decided that it would be the best policy to keep all the reserves in one place.What is the use of the reserves in the nest, how much can be stored there, if it is always stored there, it will block the road, and may one day prevent me from defending, and even more from running.On the other hand, it hurts self-confidence if you don't see all your reserves piled up and can't see what you have right now, which is silly, but that's what it is.If it is too scattered, won't many things be lost?I can't keep running around the criss-crossing aisles to see if everything is ok.The basic idea of ​​spreading out reserves is correct, but I'll have to wait until I have a few more nests like forts.How many nests like this are there!of course!But who can do it?It's also not possible to add them to my master plan for the burrow right now.I will admit, though, that this is one of the mistakes of the project, just as having only one copy of anything is always a mistake.I also admit that throughout the construction process, in my heart, in my consciousness, the need to build a few more forts was vague, but if I have a strong mind, it will be clear, and I will not budge on it , I feel that I am too weak to do such a heavy job.Yes, I felt too weak to conceive the necessity of this work, and somehow I took comfort in some less vague feeling that the usual impossibility was now placed in the It seemed to me that an exceptionally gracious exception would be possible, that it was a special arrangement of Providence that I had such a brow, that is, a ramming hammer.I've only got one fortress, but the vague feeling that building just one this time won't be enough is gone.Anyway, I had to be content with having this one, the nests couldn't possibly replace it, and when that perception matured in me, I started dragging everything from the nests back to the fort again.All the small nests and passages have been vacated, but seeing a large amount of meat piled up in the fortress, many smells mixed together can float far to the outermost passage, each smell makes me intoxicated in its own way Like crazy, I can accurately distinguish them from a long distance, and these can give me some comfort for a while.The days that followed were always very quiet. At this time, I gradually moved the sleeping place from the outermost circle to the inside, and fell deeper and deeper into the surrounding of those smells. Finally, I couldn’t bear it anymore. One night I finally stormed into the fortress, writhed desperately in those reserves, filled my stomach with the most delicious things I love to eat in infinite self-indulgence, a happy but dangerous day.Whoever makes good use of them can easily destroy me without any damage to himself.The absence of a second or third fortress also plays a harmful role in this regard, and it is this only pile that tempts me.I have tried many times to avoid this kind of temptation. Scattering and storing in small nests is one such measure. Unfortunately, it is the same as other similar measures. Because of thinking about it, it leads to greater greed. This greed breaks away for its own purpose Rationality changed the defense plan at will.

After such a day I always surveyed the burrow for my composure, and often left it for a while, though always only for a short time, after the necessary repairs had been completed.I feel the punishment of not having it for the long term is too harsh, but I see the need for a short term outing.There is always a certain gravitas as I approach the exit.When I lived in a hole I always avoided it, avoiding the passage leading to the exit even on the nearest side road to it.It's not easy to get around there, because I've made a little maze of passages there.It was there that my project began, when I could not yet hope to finish it as it had been planned, I began half-playfully in this little corner where my first pleasures of labor It broke out in the labyrinth of construction. At that time, I thought it was the crown of all buildings. However, today I can only regard it as a gadget that does not match the whole cave. Although this gadget may be precious in theory Yes—I said to the invisible enemies in a mocking tone, this is the entrance to my house, and I saw them all suffocated in the maze of the entrance—but in fact it is a small thing with extremely thin walls, It is hardly immune to a real attack or an enemy fighting desperately for life.Should I remodel this part now for this?I can't decide for a long time, maybe it will stay like this forever.Besides the enormous amount of labor I would be facing, it was also the most dangerous labor imaginable.When I started working on this hole, I could still work there more easily, and the risks were not much greater than elsewhere, but today it is almost tantamount to trying to make the world pay attention to the entire hole. Today, this is no longer possible.Also feeling a certain sentimentality for the first piece, I'm almost happy for it.If I encounter a powerful attack, how can I design the entrance to save my life?The portal can confuse, distract, and torment attackers, which it can do in an emergency.But to deal with a really powerful attack, I must use all the means in the whole burrow, all the physical and mental strength, which is self-evident.This entrance lets it be.This burrow has so many flaws that nature has imposed on it, and this flaw, caused by my hands, can also be preserved, although it will not be seen until after the fact, but it can be seen very clearly.Of course all this does not mean that I sometimes or perhaps always do not worry about this defect.If I avoid this part of the burrow in my usual walks, it is mainly because the sight of it makes me uncomfortable, because if I am already very strongly aware of a defect in the burrow, I don't want to always see it.Let this flaw stick to the upper entrance, but as long as it can be avoided, I don't want to see it.As long as I walk in the direction of the exit, even though there are still some passages and dens between me and it, I feel that I have fallen into a very dangerous atmosphere. Sometimes I feel that my hair seems to be thinning, I seem to be very Soon to be a bare piece of flesh standing there, as if the enemy was shouting to welcome me at this time.There is no doubt that this feeling is caused by going out itself, that is to say, that the shelter of home has ended, but so is the entrance that particularly troubles me.Sometimes I dream that I rebuilt it, changed it completely, very quickly, it took a night of supernatural power, no one noticed, and now it is insurmountable.I had this dream, the sweetest and sweetest sleep I have ever slept, and when I awoke tears of joy and relief still glistened on my beard.

If I want to go out, I also have to physically overcome the difficulties of the maze.In this work of my own, I have sometimes been fascinated for a while, and it always seems to be trying to prove to me-the evaluation of it has already been concluded-its right to exist. Exasperated and excited at the same time, I was under the lichen cover.I often give it time, that is, the time when I am not out of the house, that it will grow with the rest of the forest floor.Now all it takes is a headbutt and I'm in another world.I haven't dared to do this little action for a long time. If I can't overcome the maze at the entrance, then I will definitely give up today and walk back again.What's the matter?Your home is safe and enclosed.You live in peace, warm, well-fed, master, sole master of countless passages and nests, I hope you don't want to sacrifice all this, but want to give up to a certain extent, although you have confidence Get it back, but are you going to take a high stakes gamble, a very high stakes gamble?Can there be a rational reason for this?No, it is impossible to find any sane reason for such a thing.But then I cautiously pushed open the trap door and went outside, carefully put it down, and left the place where the secret was exposed as quickly as possible.

Although I don't have to squeeze through those passages anymore, I am not in the open field, but sprinting in the open forest.I felt a new power within me, and there was hardly any use for it in the burrow, not even in the fortress, even if the fortress was ten times bigger.Food outside is also a better food, although hunting is more difficult and the number of successes is less, but this result should be evaluated higher in all aspects, all of which I do not deny, I am good at using and enjoying these, at least As good as anyone else, maybe a lot better, because I hunt not like a vagabond is reckless or desperate, but purposeful and calm.This kind of free life is not arranged for me, I know, my time is limited, I will not hunt here endlessly, as long as I am willing and tired of life here, someone will come and tell me to go I will not be able to resist his invitation.That being the case, I might enjoy my time here and spend it without any worries, or rather, I could, but I can't.Burrows bother me too much.I left the entrance quickly, but returned soon after.I found myself a favorable hiding place, and for several days and nights I watched the entrance to my home—from the outside this time.Can you say it's stupid, doing it makes me happy beyond description, doing it makes me feel relieved.Later, when I fell asleep, I felt as if I was standing not in front of my own door, but in front of myself, wishing I could protect myself while sleeping.I'm almost good enough that I can not only see nocturnal ghosts in my sleepy state of helplessness and credulity, but actually deal with them when I wake up with strength and calm judgment.It seemed to me that if I went down now and came home, I was obviously not so badly off as I used to think, and I might think again later.From this aspect, and probably from other aspects, but especially from this aspect, such a trip is indeed indispensable.Of course, I took such care to make the entrance in an out-of-the-way place, but if a week's observations were to be summed up, the comings and goings there were very frequent, as in probably all habitable districts.It seemed better to be in a more frequent, and because of its frequency, never-ending coming and going, than to be at the mercy of the first slowly searching intruder.There are many enemies here, and even more accomplices of the enemies, but they are also at war with each other.Hastily passing by my hole in the fight.It was my luck, as well as his, that I saw no one search the entrance all this time, for fear of the burrow would surely make me rush forward and bite him by the neck.Of course, there are also groups of them, and I don't have the courage to stay near them. As long as I have a premonition that they are coming from a distance, I have to run away.No matter what they did with the burrow, I was never allowed to express my opinion, but when I hurried back, they were gone and the mouth of the burrow was safe, which was enough for me to be relieved.In those fortunate days I almost said to myself that the world's hostility towards me had either ceased, or had subsided, or that the power of the burrow had prevented me from having hitherto experienced a destructive battle.The protection provided by the burrow has perhaps exceeded my previous imagination, or beyond the most daring imagination in the cave.As a result, from time to time, I had a ridiculous idea that I would never go back to the cave again, and just stayed near the entrance to observe the entrance for this life, always thinking about how reliable it would be for me if I stayed in the cave. , And to get happiness, soon this ridiculous dream was awakened.What kind of security am I observing here?Can I assess the dangers I face in the burrow purely from outside experience?If I'm not in the cave, can my enemies still smell the real scent?They can definitely smell something of me, but not a strong smell.Isn't there usually a real danger with a strong smell?Therefore the very inadequate experiments I have here are only suitable for consoling me, and are very seriously injuring me by false consolation.No, I thought I could observe what was going on in my sleep, but I couldn't, or rather, it was I who was asleep and the destroyer was awake.Maybe he's one of those guys who casually wander past the hole.Exactly like me, they always just make sure the portal is still intact, waiting for them to attack.They just pass there because they know the owner is not there, or because they may well know that the owner of the cave is lurking nonchalantly in the nearby bushes.I have left my observation point, I am tired of living in the open air.I feel as though I can no longer study here, not now, nor ever.I want to say goodbye to everything here, I want to go down into the hole and never come up again, let things take their own course, I have no interest in stopping them by useless observation.However, due to being able to see what happened above the hole for a long time, I have developed a strange problem. Now if I go down the hole, I must attract attention. A kind of torture.For the time being I tried to throw my prey in quickly in the howling night, and it seemed to succeed, but whether it really succeeded will not be seen until I go down myself, which will be confirmed, but not to me anymore, even if It was too late for me.I gave up on this method, I didn't go down.I dug a ditch for the test, of course at a sufficient distance from the real opening, which was not as long as I was, and was also covered with a lichen cover.I burrowed into the ditch, covered it casually, waited cautiously, worked out the hours of the day, then lifted the lichen and crawled out to make a note of my observations.I've amassed experience with all kinds of good and bad ways, but haven't found a general pattern or a surefire way to get down the hole.So I still didn't go down the actual hole, and was half-hearted about whether I had to do it right away.I also almost decided to go far away and live the old hopeless life, the life without any security, the only wealth is a life of dangers, so I can't see the individual dangers, and I can't see the dangers. Not to be afraid of it, that's what the contrast between my safe burrow and the rest of life has often taught me.There is no doubt that such a decision is the ultimate stupidity, which can only be committed by living too long in meaningless freedom.The burrow still belongs to me, and I only need to take a step to have security.All misgivings aside, I ran straight to the door in broad daylight, that I might be able to uncover it without error.But I couldn't do it yet, and I ran past it, deliberately throwing myself into a thornbush to punish myself for a fault I don't understand.Of course, in the end I had to say to myself, I was right, if I go down the hole now, I will definitely expose my most precious thing, at least to all the creatures around me, on the ground, in the trees, in the air, for a short while. Son.This is not an imaginary danger, but a very real one.It doesn't have to be a real enemy that I've been piqued to stalk me, it's most likely some irresponsible little guy, some nasty little creature who stalked me out of curiosity and thus became all The creature came to me as a guide, but he didn't know it himself.It doesn't have to be, it might be, it's as bad as the others, and in some ways it's probably the worst.Maybe a fellow of mine, maybe a building connoisseur and evaluator, maybe a forest mate, maybe a peace lover, but maybe a brutish vagabond who wants to live without working.If he came now, if he found the hole with a dirty desire, if he started to peel off the lichen, if he succeeded, if he insisted on squeezing in to find me, and he was already crowded. Ass out for a while, if all this happened, it was so that I could finally fly from behind him without hesitation, bite him, tear him, tear him apart, drink his blood , immediately stuffed his corpse into the heap of other prey as another trophy, but first of all I was back in my hole at last, which is the main thing, and this time I'd even be happy to admire the labyrinth, But first I want to put the lichen cover on my head and rest, and I feel like I want to rest the rest of my life.But no one came, and I was on my own.Although I still only think about the difficulty of this matter, my fear has disappeared a lot, and I no longer try to avoid the hole. It is my pleasure to wander around it, so that I seem to be I have lost the enemy, and I am secretly looking for a good opportunity to break in successfully.If I have someone I can trust to put in my observation point, then I can dig in with confidence.I will make an appointment with him whom I trust, and he will watch the movement carefully when I go down the hole and for a period of time afterwards, and if there is any sign of danger, he will knock on the lichen cover, otherwise he will not knock.In this way, my upper body is safe and clean, at most there is only him whom I trust. ——If he doesn't want to be paid, then at least he doesn't want to see the burrow?Volunteering to let someone in my hole must have been particularly difficult for me.I built this cave for myself to live in, not for anyone to visit. I thought, I would not let him in, even if it was possible for me to return to the cave thanks to him, I would not let him in.But there's no way I'd let him in.Because either I would have to let him go down alone, which is impossible to imagine, or we would have to go down at the same time, and the advantage he gave me of watching behind me was gone.What about trust?I can trust him face to face, if I can't see him, if we are separated by a lichen cover, can I still trust him?If you are watching him at the same time, or at least can watch him, it is relatively easy to trust him, and it is even possible to trust someone far away, but if you stay in the cave, that is, in another world, you can completely trust someone outside. I think it's impossible.However, there is no need for such doubts. Just imagine that during my descent into the cave and after I descended, countless accidents in life may prevent this trustworthy man from fulfilling his duties, and the smallest obstacle he encounters will also give me help. Bringing immeasurable consequences, it is enough to consider this alone.No, all in all, I don't have to complain at all that I'm alone and have no one to trust.I don't lose any merit by doing so.Some losses may also be avoided.I can only trust myself and the burrow.If I had thought of this before, I should have taken precautions against what troubles me now, which was at least half as likely when the burrow was first built.I will certainly give the outermost passage two openings at a reasonable distance, so that when I encounter any unavoidable trouble going down this hole, I can run quickly through the passage to the other opening, where the lichen cover is repaired. As needed for this purpose, there should be a little gap from which I could manage to observe all the activities outside for days and nights.As long as it can be done.Although two holes double the danger, don't worry too much, because one hole is only used as an observation point, so it can be very narrow.I was obsessed with thinking about technical issues, and I began to dream of owning a perfect cave, which gave me a little comfort. The unique method of repairing holes, the method of making holes that no one can find when entering and leaving.

As I lay there thinking about it, I valued the possibilities very highly, but only as technical feats, not as real advantages, because the ability to get in and out without hindrance should mean What?It means restless consciousness, unsure self-evaluation, improper desires, bad qualities, which will become stronger because of the hole, because it will instill peace in you just by opening your heart to it. bad.Of course I'm not in the cave right now and am looking for a chance to come back, so a necessary technical facility like this would be ideal.Maybe not so ideal though.To think of the burrow as merely a lair in which to hide as safely as possible is to belittle it in a moment of nervous terror?Of course, it is this kind of safe lair, or it should be, if I were in danger, I would gnash my teeth and use all my strength to hope that this burrow was just a hole specially designed to save my life, and that it would be as safe as possible. This definite task may be satisfactorily accomplished, and I am willing to absolve it of all other tasks.And now it's the fact that—a fact that people don't see at all in times of great difficulty, and only when they're endangered—is that the burrow, while offering many safeguards, is far from Not enough, when will you be carefree once you enter the hole?There are other worries in the cave, more numerous and wider, often deeply repressed, but they are probably no less gut-wrenching than the worries caused by life outside the cave.If I build this burrow only for the safety of my life, then although I will not be disappointed, at least in terms of the security I can feel and the benefits I can get from it, the huge amount of labor and the actual protection I get The ratio between is a ratio that works against me.It hurts to admit it to myself, but it has to be admitted, and it makes me cringe to admit it right into the hole that now shuts me out as builder and owner.But the burrow wasn't just a life-saving hole.When I stood in the fort, surrounded by the meat reserves piled high on all sides, facing ten passages starting there, they rose or lowered, straight or curved, wide or narrow according to the needs of the main nest, they All empty and silent, each passage ready to lead me in its own way to the many nests, and all of them silent and empty--then it was difficult for me to consider what was safe or not, when I清楚地知道这里就是我在难以驯服的土里用手刨、用牙啃、用脚跺、用头撞出来的堡垒，无论如何也不可能另有所属的堡垒，它是我的，因而最终在这里我可以泰然自若地接受我的敌人加在我头上的死亡，因为我的血在这里渗入了我自己的土地，我的血不会遗失。那些美好时光的感受则与此完全不同了，我或宁静地睡着，或愉快地醒着，通常都是在通道里度过这些时光，这些通道都为我自己经过极为精确的计算，既能舒舒服服地伸直四肢，也能像孩子似地打滚，又能恍恍惚惚地躺在那里，还能长卧而眠。每一处小窝我都了如指掌，虽然它们一模一样，但闭上眼睛我也能根据洞壁的弧度一清二楚地分辨出它们，它们罩住了我，宁静而温暖，任何鸟巢也不会像这样笼住巢里的鸟。一切，一切都寂静无声，空空荡荡。

既然如此，我为何还犹豫不决，为何我担心入侵者更甚于担心可能再见不到自己的地洞。是呵，幸亏后者是不可能的，根本用不着动脑筋我就明白地洞对我意味着什么。我和地洞属于一个整体，我可以泰然自若地，不管我多么恐惧也可以泰然自若地住在这里，因此我根本没有必要竭力强制自己毫不犹豫地打开洞口，我什么也不用干，光等着就完全够了，因为什么也不能将我们长期分开，毫无疑问我最终将以某种方式下到洞里。不过，到那时还要过多长时间？在此期间这上面和那下面还会发生多少事？而缩短这段时间以及马上就做这件紧迫的事，那就全看我了。 现在，我已困得无力思考，搭拉着脑袋，腿脚不稳，昏昏欲睡，说是走还不如说是摸索着挨近了洞口，慢慢掀开地衣，慢慢下去，由于神思恍惚让洞口多敞了好长时间，后来我想起了这被疏忽的事，又再上去补做。但我为何要上来？盖上地衣盖子就行了，那好吧，那我就再下去，现在我终于盖好了地衣盖子。只有在这种状况下，唯有在这种状况下我才能干这件事。——随后我就躺在地衣下面，身下是带进来的猎物，四周淌着鲜血和肉汁，这下我该能开始睡那渴望之极的觉了。什么也不会来打扰我，谁也没有跟踪我，地衣上面好像，至少直到现在好像是寂静无声，即使不是寂静无声，我想我现在也不会花费时间去观察。我已经调换了地点，已从外面的世界来到自己洞里，我马上就感觉到了它的作用。这是一个新的世界，能获取新的力量的世界，上面的疲倦到了这里就不是疲倦了。我旅行归来，各种辛劳累得我已无知无觉，然而与这故居重逢，正等着我去干的安置工作，至少走马观花地赶快各处走走的必要性，尤其是尽快去一趟堡垒，这一切都将我的疲倦化作了焦急和热情，好像在我进洞的那一刻，我已睡了一个深深的长觉。第一件要干的活非常辛苦，我得全力以赴，这就是把猎物运过迷宫的那些狭窄的薄壁通道。我使出全身力气往前推，也倒还可以，但我觉得太慢了。为了加快速度，我把那堆肉的一部分扯到身后，从它们上面挤过去，又从它们中间挤过去，现在我前面只有一部分，这下把它们往前送就容易多了，但我呆在这么多的肉中间，而这里的通道又这么狭窄，即使我独自一个也不总能轻而易举地穿过去，这样我也许会闷死在自己的储备物中，有时我只好用连吃带喝来对付它们的拥挤。但这次搬运成功了，我在并不太长的时间内完成了它，迷宫被战胜了，我在一个正规的通道里松了口气，通过一个连结通道把猎物搬进一个专门为这种情况设置的主要通道，此通道是个陡坡，通往下面的堡垒。现在不用动手，所有的猎物几乎是自己往下滚，往下滑。终于到了我的堡垒！我终于可以休息了。一切都没变，好像也没发生什么较大的意外，我第一眼就发现了的那些小小的损伤很快就能修好，只是先得到各个通道转上一大圈，不过，这不费什么劲，是和朋友们闲聊，完全和我很久很久以前做的一样，或者是像我以前所做的或像我以前听说的，我还没有那么老，但对于好多事情我的记忆已经完全模糊了。现在我故意慢慢从第二个通道开始，见过堡垒之后，我有无穷无尽的时间——在地洞中我总是有无穷无尽的时间——因为我在那里做的一切都很重要，都令人喜欢，都在一定程度上使我感到满足。我开始查看第二个通道，走到中间我停止了检查，又转向第三个通道，让它把我领回堡垒，而我又得重新开始查看第二个通道，就这样干着玩着，加大着工作量，我暗暗笑着，我感到高兴，我被这么多的工作弄得头昏脑胀，但我没有丢下它们。为了你们，你们这些通道和小窝，首先是为了你，堡垒，我才来了，我才认为我的生命毫无价值，可在这之前我却犯了那么长时间的傻，为了我的生命的缘故而瑟瑟发抖，迟迟没回到你们身边。如今我和你们在一起，那危险又与我何干。你们是我的一部分，我是你们的一部分，我们紧紧连在一起，什么能奈何得了我们。那怕上面的那帮家伙挤成一团，那怕那些将要捅透地衣的嘴已做好准备。地洞以其沉默和空荡欢迎着我，使我所说的话更有力量。——可我此时感到一种倦意，在我最喜欢的一个小窝里稍稍蜷起身子，再查很长时间我也查不完，但我还想查下去，一直查完，我不是想在这里睡觉，我只是经不住诱惑想在这里适应一下，也就是说一想睡觉我就想检验一下，在这里是否还总像以前那样能成功地入睡。成功倒是成功了，但我却没能成功地挣脱出来，我在这里一直深睡下去。

大概我睡了很长时间，直到睡得足足的，在要醒还未醒时我才被吵醒了，此时我睡得一定很轻，因为吵醒我的是一种几乎听不见的嘶嘶声。我立刻就明白了，在我外出期间，我平时看管不够而爱惜有余的那帮小家伙在什么地方打了一个新的通道，它与一条老通道相遇，流动空气在那里搅成一团，因此产生了这种嘶嘶声。多么勤劳的一窝，多么令人讨厌的勤劳！我贴在通道壁上仔细听着，我得先通过挖掘确定干扰的地点，然后才能消除这种声音。另外，这新通路若符合地洞的实际情况，那我也欢迎它作为新的通风道。但我要比以前更加注意这帮小家伙，不能再给予任何保护。