野性的呼唤九（The Call of the Wild ）

5 More hard work

Thirty days after leaving Dawson City， the team arrived back in Skagway． They were very， very tired Buck now weighed only fifty kilograms， and the other dogs were also very thin．

They were not ill； they just needed a long， long rest． But at Skagway there were mountains of letters waiting to go north，so the men had to buy new， strong dogs The old ones， now useless for work， were sold．

Two American men， called Hal and Charles， bought Buck and his team， together with the harness． Charles was forty years old， with light hair and watery blue eyes． Hal was a young man of twenty with a big shiny gun and a big knife in his belt ．These things， more than anything， showed how young he was Both men were clearly new to the north， and its hard and dangerous life．

They took the dogs back to their untidy camp， where a woman was waiting ．This was Mercedes—Charles's wife and Hal's sister．

Buck watched the men take down the tent and load all their luggage on the sledge． They didn't know how to do it sensibly， and every time they put something on the sledge，Mercedes moved it． Often they had to take things off the sledge and start again．

Three men came up and watched， laughing

‘You've got a heavy load on that sledge，’ said one of them ‘Why don't you leave the tent here in Skagway？’

‘How could we live without a tent？’ asked Mercedes，throwing up her hands in the air．

‘It's spring now．You won't have any more cold weather．’

‘I must have a tent，’she answered， and helped Charles and Hal with the last few boxes．

‘Do you think that load will stay on？’asked another man．

‘Why shouldn't it？’ asked Charles．

‘Well， it's a bit heavy on top． Do you think your dogs will be able to pull that？’

‘Of course they will，’said Hal． The sledge was now ready to go．‘ Come on，dogs， pull！’ he shouted ．

The dogs pulled as hard as they could， but the sledge did not move．

‘The lazy animals！’shouted Hal， picking up his whip．

But Mercedes stopped him ‘Oh， Hal， you mustn't，’ she cried， pulling the whip away from him ．‘The poor dogs．You must promise to be nice to them or I'm staying here！’

‘You know nothing about dogs，’ answered Hal．‘ Leave me alone Dogs are lazy， and you have to whip them． Everybody knows that． Ask those men if you don't believe me．’

Mercedes turned and looked at the watching men．

‘They’ re tired， if you really want to know，’ said one of them ‘They’ ve been working very hard and they need a rest．’

‘Rest？’laughed Hal．‘These stupid dogs are just lazy．’

Now Mercedes decided that her brother was right．‘Don't listen to that man，’she said ‘You're driving our dogs and you do what you think is best．’

Now Hal used his whip on the dogs. They pulled and pulled，but the sledge stayed where it was．Hal was still using his whip when Mercedes stopped him again and put her arms around Buck．

‘You poor，poor dears，’she said．‘Why don't you pull hard？—then nobody will whip you．’

One of the men watching now spoke again．‘I don't care what happens to you，’ he said，‘but I'm sorry for the dogs．The sledge is frozen to the snow，and you'll have to break it out． Push it from one side to the other to break the ice．’

Hal tried again，but this time he broke the ice under the sledge．The heavy sledge started to move slowly，Buck and his team pulling hard under the whip．After a hundred metres they had to turn into another street．It was a difficult turn with a top-heavy load，and Hal was not a good driver．As they turned，the sledge went over onto its side，throwing boxes and packets into the street．The dogs didn't stop． The sledge was not so heavy now and they pulled it easily on its side．The whip had made them angry and they started to run．Hal cried ‘Stop！’ but the dogs continued through Skagway，and the rest of the luggage fell off as they ran．