The Call of the Wild (1)

By Jack London

Buck, a large dog, used to live in the south. But this was 1897, when men and dogs were hurrying to north-west Canada to look for gold. Buck was stolen and taken to the north, which was entirely new to him, being so close to the dangerous wilderness. How did Buck manage to adapt himself to the new life? Please read the following selection from Jack London's famous novel simplified by Nick Bullard.

Buck lived in Mr. Miller's big house in the sunny Santa Clara valley. There were large gardens and fields of fruit trees around the house, and a river nearby. In a big place like this, of course, there were many dogs. There were house dogs and farm dogs, but they were not important. Buck was chief dog; he was born here, and this was his place. He was four years old and weighed sixty kilos. He went swimming with Mr. Miller's sons, and walking with his daughters. He carried the grandchildren on his back, and he sat at Mr. Miller's feet in front of the fire in winter.

But this was 1897, and Buck did not know that men and dogs were hurrying to north-west Canada to look for gold. And he did not know that Manuel, one of Mr. Miller's gardeners, needed money for his large family. One day, when Mr. Miller was out, Manuel and Buck left the garden together. It was just an evening walk, Buck thought. No one saw them go, and only one man saw them arrive at the railway station. This man talked to Manuel, and gave him some money. Then he tied a piece of rope around Buck's neck.

Buck growled, and was surprised when the rope was pulled hard around his neck. He jumped at the man. The man caught him and suddenly Buck was on his back with his tongue out of his mouth. For a few moments he was unable to move, and it was easy for the two men to put him into the train.

When Buck woke up, the train was still moving. The man was sitting and watching him, but Buck was too quick for him and he bit the man's hand hard. Then the rope was pulled again and Buck had to let go.

That evening, the man took Buck to the back room of a bar in San Francisco. He took off Buck's rope and pushed him into a wooden box. The next day Buck was carried in the box to the railway station and put on a train to the north. For two days and nights the train traveled north, and for two days and nights Buck neither ate nor drank. For two days and nights Buck got angrier and hungrier and thirstier. His eyes grew red and he bit anything that moved.

In Seattle four men took Buck to a small, high-walled back garden, where a fat man in an old red coat was waiting. Buck was now very angry indeed and he jumped and bit at the sides of
his box. The fat man smiled and went to get an ax and a club. As the fat man hit the box with his ax, Buck jumped at the sides, growling and biting, pulling with his teeth at the pieces of broken wood. After a few minutes there was a hole big enough for Buck to get out.

"Now, come here, red eyes," said the fat man, dropping his ax and taking the club in his right hand.

Buck jumped at the man, sixty kilos of anger, his mouth wide open, ready to bite the man's neck. Just before his teeth touched the skin, the man hit him with the club. Buck fell to the ground. It was the first time anyone had hit him with a club and he did not understand. He stood up, and jumped again. Again the club hit him and he crashed to the ground. There was blood on his nose and mouth and ears. Then the fat man walked up and hit him again, very hard, on the nose. The pain was terrible. Again, Buck jumped at the man and again he was hit to the ground. At last when he jumped, the man knocked him down and he did not move.

"His name is Buck," said the fat man to himself, reading the letter that had come with the box. "Well, Buck, my boy," he said in a friendly voice , "we've argued a little, and I think the best thing to do now is to stop. Be a good dog and we'll be friends. But if you're a bad dog, ..."

As he spoke, he touched Buck's head, and although Buck was angry inside, he did not move. When the man brought him water and meat, Buck drank and then ate the meat, piece by piece, from the man's hand.

Buck was beaten (he knew that) but he was not broken. He had learnt that a man with a club was stronger than him. Every day he saw more dogs arrive, and each dog was beaten by the fat man. Buck understood that a man with a club must be obeyed, although he did not have to be a friend.

One day a short, dark man came and looked at Buck. "That's a good dog!" he cried. "How much do you want for him?"

"Three hundred dollars. It's a good price, Perrault,”" said the fat man.

Perrault smiled and agreed that it was a good price. He knew dogs, and he knew that Buck was an excellent dog. "One in ten thousand," Perrault said to himself.

Buck saw money put into the fat man's hand, and he was not surprised when he and another dog called Curly were taken away by Perrault. He took them to a ship , and later that day Buck and Curly stood and watched the coast get further and further away. They had seen the warm south for the last time.

Perrault took Buck and Curly down to the bottom of the ship. There they met another man, Franois. Perrault was a French-Canadian, but Franois was half-Indian, tall and dark. Buck learnt quickly that Perrault and Franois were fair men, calm and honest. And they knew everything about dogs.

There were two other dogs on the ship. One was a big dog called Spitz, as white as snow. He was friendly to Buck at first, always smiling. He was smiling when he tried to steal Buck's food at the first meal. Franois was quick and hit Spitz before Buck had time to move. Buck decided that this was fair, and began to like Franois a little.

Dave, the other dog, was not friendly. He wanted to be alone all the time. He ate and slept and was interested in nothing.

One day was very like another, but Buck noticed that the weather was getting colder. One morning, the ship's engines stopped, and there was a feeling of excitement in the ship. Franois leashed the dogs and took them outside. At the first step Buck's feet went into something soft and white. He jumped back in surprise. The soft, white thing was also falling through the air, and it fell onto him. He tried to smell it, and then caught some on his tongue. It bit like fire, and then disappeared. It was his first snow.

Buck's first day at Dyea Beach was terrible. Every hour there was some new, frightening surprise. And every minute there was danger, because these dogs and men were not town dogs and men. They knew only the law of club and tooth.

Buck had never seen dogs fight like these dogs; they were like wolves. In a few minutes he learnt this from watching Curly. She tried to make friends with a dog. There was no warning. The dog jumped on Curly, whose face was torn open from eye to mouth. Thirty or forty more dogs ran up and made a circle around the fight, watching silently. Curly tried to attack the dog who had bitten her; he bit her a second time , and jumped away. When she attacked him again, he knocked her backwards, and she fell on the ground. She never stood up again, because this was what the other dogs were waiting for. In a moment she was under a crowd of dogs.

It was all very sudden. Buck saw Spitz run out from the crowd with his tongue out of his mouth, laughing. Then he saw Franois with an ax, and two or three other men with clubs jump in among the dogs. Two minutes later the last of the dogs was chased away. But Curly lay dead in the snow , her body torn almost to pieces. Curly's death often came back to Buck in his dreams. He understood that once a dog was down on the ground, he was dead. He also remembered Spitz laughing, and from that moment he hated him.

Then Buck had another surprise. Franois put a harness on him. Buck had seen harnesses on horses, and now he was made to work like a horse with Spitz and Dave, who had worked in a harness before, and Buck learnt by watching them. He also learnt to stop and turn when Franois shouted.

"Those three are very good dogs," Franois told Perrault. "Buck pulls very well, and he's learning quickly."

Perrault had important letters and official papers to take to Dawson City, so that afternoon he bought two more dogs, two brothers called Billee and Joe.

That night Buck discovered another problem. Where was he going to sleep? Franois and Perrault were in their tent, but when he went in, they shouted angrily and threw things at him. Outside it was very cold and windy. He lay down in the snow, but he was too cold to sleep.

    He walked around the tents trying to find the other dogs. But, to his surprise, they had disappeared. Suddenly, the snow under his feet fell in, and he felt something move. There, in a warm hole under the snow, was Billee.

So that was what you had to do. Buck chose a place, dug himself a hole and in a minute he was warm and asleep. He slept well, although his dreams were bad.

When he woke up, at first he did not know where he was. It had snowed in the night and the snow now lay thick and heavy above him. Growling, he threw himself at the snow, and a moment later, he had jumped upwards into the daylight.

Franois and Perrault bought three more dogs that morning, and a quarter of an hour later all the dogs were in harness and on their way up the Dyea Canyon. Buck was not sorry to be moving, and although it was hard work, he almost enjoyed it.

(1,751 words)

(From The Call of the Wild, by Jack London, simplified by Nick Bullard, Oxford University Press, 1995 )

(To be continued.)

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