The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bramble Bush, by Gordon Randall Garrett
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Title: The Bramble Bush
Author: Gordon Randall Garrett
Illustrator: Schelling
Release Date: December 7, 2007 [EBook #23764]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from _Analog_ August 1962. Extensive
research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on
this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical
errors have been corrected without note. Subscript characters are
shown within {braces}.
The Bramble Bush
Usually, if a man's gotten into bad trouble
by getting into something,
he's a fool to go back. But there are times ...
by Randall Garrett
Illustrated by Schelling
_There was a man in our town,
And he was wond'rous wise;
He jumped into a bramble bush,
And scratch'd out both his eyes!_
--Old Nursery Rhyme
Peter de Hooch was dreaming that the moon had blown up when he awakened.
The room was dark except for the glowing night-light near the door, and
he sat up trying to separate the dream from reality. He focused his eyes
on the glow-plate. What had wakened him? Something had, he was sure, but
there didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary now.
The explosion in his dream had seemed extraordinarily realistic. He
could still remember vividly the vibration and the _cr-r-r-ump!_ of the
noise. But there was no sign of what might have caused the dream
sequence.
Maybe something fell, he thought. He swung his legs off his bed and
padded barefoot over to the light switch. He was so used to walking
under the light lunar gravity that he was no longer conscious of it. He
pressed the switch, and the room was suddenly flooded with light. He
looked around.
Everything was in place, apparently. There was nothing on the floor that
shouldn't be there. The books were all in their places in the bookshelf.
The stuff on his desk se
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