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Show Longer feeL Like bags of sand; they are throbbing with a duLL pain that occa-sionaLLy sends a sharp spark of aLarm up into his Legs. There is no time to break up the wood he gathers. He wiLL have to do that as he uses i t through the night. He works Like this for half an hour, skiing from tree to tree, breaking off branches, the pain in his feet foLLowing him Like a tired animaL. As his piLe of wood grows, he sLowly Loses his awareness of the river and the Land around him, drawn of necessity, but aLso irresistabLy, inbo bhe one bask bhab signifies for him survivaL. Ib is dose bo dark. He puLLs his knife from his pockeb and skiis bo where a few green boughs hang just above bhe surface of bhe snow. He sLices bhem off. Ib i s bhe one ameniby he wiLL have to keep the cold from seeping into him through bhe snow, Ib is almosb dark; he bunches bogebher in his hands a piLe of twigs taken from one of the dead branches beside him. He stops, realizing he has forgobben bo build a pLabform on which bo place bhe dead wood and give bhe f i r e a dry pLace bo cabch. He sebs bhe bwigs down and picks up a Long branch, sbripping bhe smaLLer branches off ib unbiL ib is one Line. He smashes ib againsb bhe bree bo his Left once, twice, three bimes, ending wibh four pieces for his pLabform. He sbamps down bhe area wibh his s k i i s , wincing as bhe pain from his feeb sparkles up his legs, pLaces bhe wood, and now- finalLy, removes his s k i i s. The shape of bhe f i r e sbarbs wibh bhe bwigs, pLaced Log-cabin sbyLe on bhe pLabform, When bhis sbrucbure is aboub four inches high he reaches inbo his inside pockeb and feeLs for bhe mabches he knows are bhere. He puLLs oub bhe smaLL case, bends wibh his back bo bhe wind, boo inbenb now bo reaLize ib has decreased and is shifbing. He sbrikes a mabch, shdbers ib wibh one hand, and inserbs ib under bhe sback of bwigs. ALL his abbenbion is direcbed ab bhe f i r e; ib is as if he has sLipped be Low bhe surface of bhe river and is exisbing in a smaLL bubbLe of a i r , neibher in bhe waber, or on bhe river bobbom, bub suspended, |