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- Джек Лондон
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- Стр. 1/42
Call of the ancestors
Old
longings
nomadic
leap
,
Chafing
at
custom
's
chain
;
Again
from
its
brumal
sleep
Wakens
the
ferine
strain
.
"
Buck
did
not
read
the
newspapers
,
or
he
would
have
known
that
trouble
was
brewing
,
not
alone
for
himself
,
but
for
every
tide-water
dog
,
strong
of
muscle
and
with
warm
,
long
hair
,
from
Puget
Sound
to
San
Diego
.
Because
men
,
groping
in
the
Arctic
darkness
,
had
found
a
yellow
metal
,
and
because
steamship
and
transportation
companies
were
booming
the
find
,
thousands
of
men
were
rushing
into
the
Northland
.
These
men
wanted
dogs
,
and
the
dogs
they
wanted
were
heavy
dogs
,
with
strong
muscles
by
which
to
toil
,
and
furry
coats
to
protect
them
from
the
frost
.
Buck
lived
at
a
big
house
in
the
sun-kissed
Santa
Clara
Valley
.
Judge
Miller
's
place
,
it
was
called
.
It
stood
back
from
the
road
,
half
hidden
among
the
trees
,
through
which
glimpses
could
be
caught
of
the
wide
cool
veranda
that
ran
around
its
four
sides
.
The
house
was
approached
by
gravelled
driveways
which
wound
about
through
wide-spreading
lawns
and
under
the
interlacing
boughs
of
tall
poplars
.
At
the
rear
things
were
on
even
a
more
spacious
scale
than
at
the
front
.
There
were
great
stables
,
where
a
dozen
grooms
and
boys
held
forth
,
rows
of
vine-clad
servants
'
cottages
,
an
endless
and
orderly
array
of
outhouses
,
long
grape
arbors
,
green
pastures
,
orchards
,
and
berry
patches
.
Then
there
was
the
pumping
plant
for
the
artesian
well
,
and
the
big
cement
tank
where
Judge
Miller
's
boys
took
their
morning
plunge
and
kept
cool
in
the
hot
afternoon
.
And
over
this
great
demesne
Buck
ruled
.
Here
he
was
born
,
and
here
he
had
lived
the
four
years
of
his
life
.
It
was
true
,
there
were
other
dogs
.
There
could
not
but
be
other
dogs
on
so
vast
a
place
,
but
they
did
not
count
.
They
came
and
went
,
resided
in
the
populous
kennels
,
or
lived
obscurely
in
the
recesses
of
the
house
after
the
fashion
of
Toots
,
the
Japanese
pug
,
or
Ysabel
,
the
Mexican
hairless
--
strange
creatures
that
rarely
put
nose
out
of
doors
or
set
foot
to
ground
.
On
the
other
hand
,
there
were
the
fox
terriers
,
a
score
of
them
at
least
,
who
yelped
fearful
promises
at
Toots
and
Ysabel
looking
out
of
the
windows
at
them
and
protected
by
a
legion
of
housemaids
armed
with
brooms
and
mops
.
But
Buck
was
neither
house-dog
nor
kennel-dog
.
The
whole
realm
was
his
.
He
plunged
into
the
swimming
tank
or
went
hunting
with
the
Judge
's
sons
;
he
escorted
Mollie
and
Alice
,
the
Judge
's
daughters
,
on
long
twilight
or
early
morning
rambles
;
on
wintry
nights
he
lay
at
the
Judge
's
feet
before
the
roaring
library
fire
;
he
carried
the
Judge
's
grandsons
on
his
back
,
or
rolled
them
in
the
grass
,
and
guarded
their
footsteps
through
wild
adventures
down
to
the
fountain
in
the
stable
yard
,
and
even
beyond
,
where
the
paddocks
were
,
and
the
berry
patches
.
Among
the
terriers
he
stalked
imperiously
,
and
Toots
and
Ysabel
he
utterly
ignored
,
for
he
was
king
--
king
over
all
creeping
,
crawling
,
flying
things
of
Judge
Miller
's
place
,
humans
included
.
His
father
,
Elmo
,
a
huge
St.
Bernard
,
had
been
the
Judge
's
inseparable
companion
,
and
Buck
bid
fair
to
follow
in
the
way
of
his
father
.
He
was
not
so
large
--
he
weighed
only
one
hundred
and
forty
pounds
--
for
his
mother
,
Shep
,
had
been
a
Scotch
shepherd
dog
.
Nevertheless
,
one
hundred
and
forty
pounds
,
to
which
was
added
the
dignity
that
comes
of
good
living
and
universal
respect
,
enabled
him
to
carry
himself
in
right
royal
fashion
.
During
the
four
years
since
his
puppyhood
he
had
lived
the
life
of
a
sated
aristocrat
;
he
had
a
fine
pride
in
himself
,
was
even
a
trifle
egotistical
,
as
country
gentlemen
sometimes
become
because
of
their
insular
situation
.
But
he
had
saved
himself
by
not
becoming
a
mere
pampered
house-dog
.
Hunting
and
kindred
outdoor
delights
had
kept
down
the
fat
and
hardened
his
muscles
;
and
to
him
,
as
to
the
cold-tubbing
races
,
the
love
of
water
had
been
a
tonic
and
a
health
preserver
.
