Another lesson. So that was the way they did it, eh? Buck confidently selected a spot, and with much fuss and wasted effort proceeded to dig a hole for himself. In a few seconds the heat from his body filled the small space, and he fell asleep. The day had been long and difficult, and he slept soundly and comfortably, though he growled and barked and wrestled with bad dreams.
He didn't open his eyes until he was roused by the noises of the waking camp. At first he did not know where he was. It had snowed during the night, and he was completely buried. The snow walls pressed him on every side, and a great surge of fear swept through him -- the fear of the wild thing caught in a trap. It was an instinct, pure and simple. He was a civilized dog, an unduly civilized dog, and he had never experienced a trap himself, so he shouldn't fear it. But the muscles of his whole body contracted, the hair on his neck and shoulders stood on end, and with a ferocious snarl he bounded straight up into the blinding day, the snow flying about him in a flashing cloud. When he landed on his feet, though, he saw the white camp spread out before him and knew where he was. He remembered all that had passed from the time he went for a stroll with @Manuel to the hole he had dug for himself the night before.
A shout from Francois greeted him. "What I say?" the dog-driver cried to Perrault. "That Buck for sure learn quick as anything."
Perrault nodded gravely. As courier for the @Canadian government, bearing important documents, he was anxious to secure the best dogs. He was particularly glad to have gotten Buck.
Three more huskies were added to the team inside an hour, making a total of nine, and before another quarter of an hour had passed they were in harness and swinging up the trail toward the @Dyea Canon. Buck was glad to be gone, and though the work was hard he found he did not particularly hate it. He was surprised at the eagerness which drove the whole team and which they communicated to him. Still more surprising, though, was the change in Dave and Sol-leks. They were new dogs, utterly transformed by the harness. All passiveness they had shown before was gone. They were alert and active, anxious that the work should go well, and fiercely irritable with whatever delayed that work. The harness seemed to be all that they lived for and the only thing in which they took delight.
