[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
the same creatures that flung sticks and stones to great distances. But when
the frames of poles were made into tepees by being covered with cloth and
skins, White Fang was astounded. It was the colossal bulk of them that
impressed him. They arose around him, on every side, like some monstrous
quick-growing form of life. They occupied nearly the whole circumference of
his field of vision. He was afraid of them. They loomed ominously above him;
and when the breeze stirred them into huge movements, he cowered down in fear,
keeping his eyes warily upon them, and prepared to spring away if they
attempted to precipitate themselves upon him.
But in a short while his fear of the tepees passed away. He saw the women and
children passing in and out of them without harm, and he saw the dogs trying
Page 97
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
often to get into them, and being driven away with sharp words and flying
stones. After a time, he left Kiche's side and crawled cautiously toward the
wall of the nearest tepee. It was the curiosity of growth that urged him
on the necessity of learning and living and doing that brings experience. The
last few inches to the wall of the tepee were crawled with painful slowness
and precaution. The day's events had prepared him for the unknown to manifest
itself in most stupendous and unthinkable ways. At last his nose touched the
canvas. He waited. Nothing happened. Then he smelled the strange fabric,
saturated with the man-smell. He closed on the canvas with his teeth and gave
a gentle tug. Nothing happened, though the adjacent portions of the tepee
moved. He tugged harder. There was a greater movement. It was delightful. He
tugged still harder, and repeatedly, until the whole tepee was in motion. Then
the sharp cry of a squaw inside sent him scampering back to Kiche. But after
that he was afraid no more of the looming bulks of the tepees.
A moment later he was straying away again from his mother. Her stick was tied
to a peg in the ground and she could not follow him. A part-grown puppy,
somewhat larger and older than he, came toward him slowly, with ostentatious
and belligerent importance. The puppy's name, as White Fang was afterward to
hear him called, was Lip-lip. He had had experience in puppy fights and was
already something of a bully.
Lip-lip was White Fang's own kind, and, being only a puppy, did not seem
dangerous; so White Fang prepared to meet him in friendly spirit. But when the
stranger's walk became stiff-legged and his lips lifted clear of his teeth,
White Fang stiffened, too, and answered with lifted lips. They half circled
about each other, tentatively, snarling and bristling. This lasted several
minutes, and White Fang was beginning to enjoy it, as a sort of game. But
suddenly, with remarkable swiftness, Lip-lip leaped in, delivered a slashing
snap, and leaped away again. The snap had taken effect on the shoulder that
had been hurt by the lynx and that was still sore deep down near the bone. The
surprise and hurt of it brought a yelp out of White Fang; but the next moment,
in a rush of anger, he was upon Lip-lip and snapping viciously.
But Lip-lip had lived his life in camp and had fought many puppy fights.
Three times, four times, and half a dozen times, his sharp little teeth scored
on the newcomer, until White Fang, yelping shamelessly, fled to the protection
of his mother. It was the first of the many fights he was to have with
Lip-lip, for they were enemies from the start, born so, with natures destined
perpetually to clash.
Kiche licked White Fang soothingly with her tongue, and tried to prevail upon
him to remain with her. But his curiosity was rampant, and several minutes
later he was venturing forth on a new quest. He came upon one of the
man-animals, Gray Beaver, who was squatting on his hams and doing something
with sticks and dry moss spread before him on the ground. White Fang came near
to him and watched. Gray Beaver made mouth-noises which White Fang interpreted
as not hostile, so he came still nearer.
Women and children were carrying more sticks and branches to Gray Beaver. It
was evidently an affair of moment. White Fang came in until he touched Gray
Beaver's knee, so curious was he, and already forgetful that this was a
terrible man-animal. Suddenly he saw a strange thing like mist beginning to
arise from the sticks and moss beneath Gray Beaver's hands. Then, amongst the
sticks themselves, appeared a live thing, twisting and turning, of a color
like the color of the sun in the sky. White Fang knew nothing about fire. It
drew him as the light in the mouth of the cave had drawn him in his early
puppyhood. He crawled the several steps toward the flame. He heard Gray Beaver
chuckle above him, and he knew the sound was not hostile. Then his nose
touched the flame, and at the same instant his little tongue went out to it.
Page 98
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
For a moment he was paralyzed. The unknown, lurking in the midst of the
sticks and moss, was savagely clutching him by the nose. He scrambled
backward, bursting out in an astonished explosion of ki-yi's. At the sound,
Kiche leaped snarling to the end of her stick, and there raged terribly
because she could not come to his aid. But Gray Beaver laughed loudly, and
slapped his thighs, and told the happening to all the rest of the camp, till
everybody was laughing uproariously. But White Fang sat on his haunches and
ki-yi'd and ki-yi'd, a forlorn and pitiable little figure in the midst of the
man-animals.
It was the worst hurt he had ever known. Both nose and tongue had been
scorched by the live thing, sun-colored, that had grown up under Gray Beaver's
hands. He cried and cried interminably, and every fresh wail was greeted by
bursts of laughter on the part of the man-animals. He tried to soothe his nose
with his tongue, but the tongue was burnt too, and the two hurts coming
together produced greater hurt; whereupon he cried more hopelessly and
helplessly than ever.
And then shame came to him. He knew laughter and the meaning of it. It is not
given us to know how some animals know laughter, and know when they are being
laughed at; but it was this same way that White Fang knew it. And he felt
shame that the man-animals should be laughing at him. He turned and fled away,
not from the hurt of the fire, but from the laughter that sank even deeper,
and hurt in the spirit of him. And he fled to Kiche, raging at the end of her
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]