Day after day Buck pulled a sledge. They started in the morning before it was light, and stopped in the evening after it was dark, eating a piece of fish and going to sleep in their holes under the snow.
Buck was always hungry. Francois gave him 750 grams of dried fish a day, and it was never enough. The other dogs were given only 500 grams because they were smaller and could live on less food.
. If he was too slow, the other dogs would steal(偷) his food. He saw Pike, one of the new dogs, steal some meat from the sledge when Francois wasn't looking.
The next day Buck stole some and got away unseen. Francois was very angry, but he thought another dog, Dub, had taken it and punished him instead of Buck.
Buck was learning how to live in the north. In the south he had never stolen, and there he had never been so hungry. He stole cleverly and secretly, remembering the beatings from the man with the club(击棍).
Buck was learning the law of club and tooth. He learnt to eat any food-anything that he could get his teeth into. He learnt to break the ice on water holes with his feet when he wanted to drink. He was stronger, harder, and could see and smell better than ever before.
In a way, he was remembering back to the days when wild dogs travelled in groups through the forest, killing for meat as they went. It was easy for him to learn to fight like a wolf, because it was in his blood. In the evenings, when he pointed his nose at the moon and howled(长嚎) long and loud, he was remembering the dogs and wolves that had come before him.
——Adapted from The Call of the Wild
微信扫码预览、分享更方便
