Kitabı oku: «The Call of the Wild / Зов предков», sayfa 10

Day after day, since dawn till evening, Buck toiled in the traces. After darkness, in the camp, they ate their bit of fish. Buck was hungry. The pound and a half of sun-dried salmon, which was his ration for each day, seemed to go nowhere.

Buck found that his mates, finishing first, robbed him of his unfinished meal. So he started to eat as fast as they, and even could take what did not belong to him. He watched and learnt. When he saw Pike, one of the new dogs, a clever thief, steal a slice of bacon when Perrault’s back was turned, he did the same. He was unsuspected; while Dub, who was always getting caught, was punished instead.

This first theft showed that Buck was fit to survive in the hostile Northland environment. It showed his adaptability, the lack of which would have meant a quick and terrible death. It also showed the decay of his moral nature, a useless thing in the struggle for existence. It was well enough in the Southland, under the law of love and fellowship, to respect private property and personal feelings; but in the Northland, under the law of club and fang, it was foolish.

Not that Buck understood it. The club of the man in the red sweater had beaten into him a fundamental and primitive code. Civilized, he could have died for a moral consideration. Now, he did not steal for joy of it, but because of hunger. He stole secretly, out of respect for club and fang. In short, the things he did were done because it was easier to do them than not to do them.

His development (or retrogression) was quick. His muscles became hard as iron, and he was now careless to ordinary pain. He achieved an internal as well as external economy. He could eat anything. Sight, scent and hearing became remarkably keen. He learnt to bite the ice out when it collected between his toes; and when he was thirsty and there was ice over the water, he broke it with his fore legs.