I had almost finished it when I heard my father's gun in the woods. At once I hid the saw and cleared the sawdust away.
The old man entered the hut fairly sober. He sent me to the boat to fetch the things he had brought from the store. There was a sack of flour, some meat, some gun-powder and shot, four gallons of whiskey and several other thing. I carried them into the hut.
After supper, father began to drinking. I thought to myself,"In an hour he'll be quite drunk and then I'll steal the key from him or saw my way out." He drank and drank then and fell down on his mattress. But he didn't go to sleep. He moaned and groaned and kept rolling from one side of the mattress to the other side. I fell asleep. I don't know how long I was asleep but I woke up suddenly. Father was screaming and jumping all over the place.
"snakes!" he yelled. "They're after me! They're crawling up my legs! They're crawling all over me! One's just bitten me here, on the cheek. Oh!"
