Hatchet Chapter 11 Summary

  • Brian transfers the eggs into the shelter, burying them there. Then he adds wood to the fire. He wants to keep busy, so that he can't think about the fact that he hasn't been rescued yet. He spends the morning gathering more wood and chopping it into small sticks.
  • Checking his leg (which is feeling back to normal but still has holes in it from the porcupine quills), Brian notices that his body is changing—no, he's not transforming into a werewolf. Or a vampire. Sorry—it's not that kind of book. But he is becoming tan and lean and his skin is tougher than it had been before. 
  • His mind, he thinks, is also different. Since he's been in the woods, he's changed—he sees and hears things differently, more completely, not just noticing things the way he used to do. His body and mind work together now, too, in a different way. 
  • Deciding to get a signal fire ready, Brian finds a large flat stone area on the ridge over his shelter. This would be a perfect place for the fire, so he stocks the area with wood so he can start a fire quickly if he ever hears a plane engine overhead. 
  • After he gathers the wood, he sits on the ledge to rest and looks out over the lake. The lake and the woods surrounding it are beautiful and full of life. Pretty peaceful.
  • He watches a bird dip into the water and come up with a fish in its beak, and this gives him the idea of trying to catch fish for himself.
  • Brian goes down to the water and looks into the lake. He sees lots of fish, as well as a crayfish crawling through the shallows. 
  • He tries to grab a fish with his hands, but the sly little suckers are just too quick. He thinks about making a spear, but it's getting late, and for now, he decides to look for some raspberries and eat his one turtle egg for dinner. 
  • He'll just put it on his ever-evolving to-do list.