1906 white fang jack london - pinkmonke - Pink Monkey

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into Beauty Smith’s keeping, White Fang knew that it was his god’s
will for him to go with Beauty Smith.
And when Beauty Smith left him tied outside the fort, he knew that
it was Beauty Smith’s will that he should remain there. Therefore,
he had disobeyed the will of both the gods, and earned the
consequent punishment. He had seen dogs change owners in the
past, and he had seen the runaways beaten as he was being beaten.
He was wise, and yet in the nature of him there were forces greater
than wisdom.
One of these was fidelity. He did not love Gray Beaver, yet, even in
the face of his will and his anger, he was faithful to him. He could
not help it. This faithfulness was a quality of the clay that
composed him. It was the quality that was peculiarly the
possession of his kind; the quality that set apart his species from all
other species; the quality that had enabled the wolf and the wild
dog to come in from the open and be the companions of man.
After the beating, White Fang was dragged back to the fort. But
this time Beauty Smith left him tied with a stick. One does not give
up a god easily, and so with White Fang. Gray Beaver was his own
particular god, and, in spite of Gray Beaver’s will, White Fang still
clung to him and would not give him up. Gray Beaver had
betrayed and forsaken him, but that had no effect upon him. Not
for nothing had he surrendered himself body and soul to Gray
Beaver. There had been no reservation on White Fang’s part, and
the bond was not to be broken easily.
So in the night, when the men at the fort were asleep, White Fang
applied his teeth to the stick that held him. The wood was
seasoned and dry, and it was tied so closely to his neck that he
could scarcely get his teeth to it. It was only by the severest
muscular exertion and neck-arching that he succeeded in getting
the wood between his teeth, and barely between his teeth at that;
and it was only by the exercise of an immense patience, extending
through many hours, that he succeeded in gnawing through the
stick. This was something that dogs were not supposed to do. It
was unprecedented. But White Fang did it, trotting away from the
fort in the early morning with the end of the stick hanging to his
neck.
He was wise. But had he been merely wise he would not have gone
back to Gray Beaver, who had already twice betrayed him. But
there was his faithfulness, and he went back to be betrayed yet a
third time. Again he yielded to the tying of a thong around his
neck by Gray Beaver, and again Beauty Smith came to claim him.
And this time he was beaten even more severely than before.