Once again the man blinked his eyes into consciousness and the image of the pup faded away with the brightness of the midday sun and not far away was a black and white dog whining gently and beating the dust and twigs with his slowly wagging tail. As he saw the man’s eyes open, he clawed at the ground in front of him and made as if to rush to­wards his master, but sat up and continued his tail beating and whining. The man stared at the dog as reality smote him with a cruel blow — like the back of an axe. Ahh, the axe, and his eyes wandered once again to his axe. He pushed his boot a few inches towards the axe but stopped. These last six days it hadn’t reached, why should it reach this morning? He pushed at his leg anyway but the boot seemed heavier and he didn’t seem to be able to bend his knee. He gave up and slowly turned his eye_s to his arm. He ran his black swollen tongue across his lips and bent t<> lick at the log, but its dew had long since dried and the taste of sap naus eated him still further and his stomach felt like a split pea cringing in i\\_v huge cave of his chest.