42 A Safe Place to Sleep

Need some sleep? Maybe you should try curling up in a cactus. This prickly plant can provide sound slumber—at least for a desert centipede. It has a hundred legs. Although pretty scary to look at itself, the bug is afraid of the tarantula, a large dark spider with eight big hairy legs.

Each night before the centipede goes to sleep, it builds a special bungalow alarm made of cactus. It surrounds itself with these sharp plants. The smart bug knows that the tarantula will never crawl over cactus. That would be like hugging a porcupine. So the centipede sleeps safely in its cactus coral. It can be sure that no enemy will get in.

Shut out by this prickly prison, the hungry tarantula lurks outside the centipede’s bedroom for hours. First, it circles the wall, then it peeps over and circles again. Finally, it decides that there is nothing it can do. It leaves the centipede to sleep and goes off to look for a creature that won’t protect itself as well.

The next day the centipede wakes from a good night’s sleep, figuring the tarantula has surely given up by now. Still, the centipede is cautious. It takes a long and very careful look around. Only when it’s sure that the coast is clear does the centipede begin to remove the wall of cactus that protected it in sleep.

42 安全的睡眠之地

需要睡一会儿吗？也许你应该试试蜷缩在仙人掌里。这种多刺的植物可以提供安稳的睡眠——至少对沙漠里的蜈蚣来说是这样。它有一百条腿。虽然它自己看起来相当吓人，但这种虫子害怕狼蛛，狼蛛是一种有着八条多毛大长腿的大型深色蜘蛛。

每晚在蜈蚣睡觉前，它会用仙人掌搭建一个特殊的“平房警报器”。它让自己被这些尖锐的植物包围。这只聪明的虫子知道狼蛛绝不会爬过仙人掌，那就像拥抱一只豪猪。所以蜈蚣在它的仙人掌“珊瑚礁”里安全地睡觉，可以确信没有敌人会进来。

被这所多刺的监狱拒之门外，饥饿的狼蛛在蜈蚣的“卧室”外潜伏数小时。首先，它绕着墙转圈，然后偷窥并再次转圈。最后，它断定自己无能为力，便离开蜈蚣去寻找一个不那么会保护自己的生物。

第二天，蜈蚣从一夜好眠中醒来，认为狼蛛现在肯定已经放弃了。不过，蜈蚣还是很谨慎，它会花很长时间非常仔细地环顾四周。只有当它确信安全了，才会开始移除睡觉时保护它的仙人掌墙。