Brian's Winter

In the morning, Brian finishes sewing the rabbit hides together to make a poncho. He then sees the wolves from the previous night carrying fresh meat. Brian finds the deer the wolves killed nearby, and takes the meat and hide they left behind. Even though the wolves already fed on the deer, much meat remains, and Brian feels like “the richest man on the earth” (49) as he brings several pounds of meat back to his camp and eats until he’s full. He finishes making the arrows for his war bow, so he now has nine arrows.

That night, after cooking some of the deer meat, Brian has an unexpected visitor: a skunk. The skunk turns and lifts its tail as if it’s about to spray, but pauses. When Brian gives the skunk a piece of meat, the skunk takes it and leaves without spraying. 

In the morning, just as Brian finishes cooking meat for breakfast, the skunk comes again and raises its tail until Brian feeds it. Brian follows the skunk to a hole near his shelter, and realizes that the skunk has “moved in” (55). The skunk returns each morning and waits for Brian to feed it before leaving. Brian feels a sort of companionship with the skunk, and names it Betty.

He finishes stringing his war bow, and the first time he practices with it, he’s surprised by its strength. Pulling the string back hurts his arm and fingers, but Brian is pleased with the bow, and now realizes that beyond giving him protection, the bow will allow him to hunt larger game like deer.

Brian wakes in the middle of the night and immediately tries to identify what woke him. Another bear has come to his camp, drawn by the smell of the venison in Brian’s shelter. Brian is unable to react in time. The bear swipes at him twice, and the second blow nearly breaks Brian’s hip. As the bear turns towards Brian for the third time, Betty comes and sprays the bear directly in its eyes. The spray sends the bear out of the shelter and into the night, and Brian’s thankfulness for the rescue eclipses the skunk smell.

The next morning, Brian repairs the damage the bear caused to his shelter. He muses that his bow and arrow didn’t do him any good last night because he couldn’t get them ready in time. He makes a killing spear using the same principle as the arrows, only bigger. He now has a weapon he can use quickly at close range if needed. Little does he know that although he will never face the bear again, the spear will save his life.