Page 167 - SpringBoard_ELA_Grade6_Flipbook

aCTIvITy 2.16
continued
Traveling with Charley: Literary Nonfiction
my Notes
Chunk 3
We went on our way into the wonderland of nature gone nuts, and you will have to believe what happened. The only way I can prove it would be to get a bear.
Less than a mile from the entrance I saw a bear beside the road, and it ambled out as though to flag me down. Instantly a change came over Charley. He shrieked with rage. His lips flared, showing wicked teeth that have some trouble with a dog biscuit. He screeched insults at the bear, which hearing, the bear reared up and seemed to me to overtop Rocinante. Frantically I rolled the windows shut and, swinging quickly to the left, grazed the animal, then scuttled on while Charley raved and ranted beside me, describing in detail what he would do to that bear if he could get at him. I was never so astonished in my life. To the best of my knowledge Charley had never seen
a bear, and in his whole history had showed great tolerance for every living thing. Besides all this, Charley is a coward, so deep-seated a coward that he has developed a technique for concealing it. And yet he showed every evidence of wanting to get out and murder a bear that outweighed him a thousand to one. I don’t understand it.
Chunk 4
A little farther along two bears showed up, and the effect was doubled. Charley became a maniac. He leaped all over me, he cursed and growled, snarled and screamed. I didn’t know he had the ability to snarl. Where did he learn it? Bears were in good supply, and the road became a nightmare. For the first time in his
life Charley resisted reason, even resisted a cuff on the ear. He became a primitive killer lusting for the blood of his enemy, and up to this moment he had no enemies. In a bear-less stretch, I opened the cab, took Charley by the collar, and locked him in the house. But that did no good. When we passed other bears he leaped on the table and scratched at the windows trying to get out at them. I could hear canned goods crashing as he struggled in his mania. Bears simply brought out the Hyde
in my Jekyll-headed dog. What could have caused it? Was it a pre-breed memory of a time when the wolf was in him? I know him well. Once in a while he tries a bluff, but it is a palpable lie. I swear that this was no lie. I am certain that if he were released he would have charged every bear we passed and found victory or death.
Chunk 5
It was too nerve-wracking, a shocking spectacle, like seeing an old, calm friend go insane. No amount of natural wonders, of rigid cliffs and belching waters, of smoking springs could even engage my attention while that pandemonium went on.
After about the fifth encounter I gave up, turned Rocinante about, and retraced my way. If I had stopped the night and bears gathered to my cooking, I dare not think what would have happened.
At the gate the park guard checked me out. “You didn’t stay long. Where’s the dog?”
“Locked up back there. And I owe you an apology. That dog has the heart and soul of a bear-killer and I didn’t know it. Heretofore he has been a little tender- hearted toward an underdone steak.”
“Yea!” he said. “That happens sometimes. That’s why I warned you. A bear dog would know his chances, but I’ve seen a Pomeranian go up like a puff of smoke. You know, a well-favored bear can bat a dog like a tennis ball.”
Chunk 6
I moved fast, back the way I had come, and I was reluctant to camp for fear there might be some unofficial non-government bears about. That night I spent in a pretty
Word CoNNeCTIoNS
Etymology
The word nightmare is built from the words night and mare. Mare is an Old English word that means “a goblin or monster who torments people with bad dreams.” Nightmare means “a bad dream.”
140 SpringBoard® English Language Arts Grade 6
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