{"product_id":"2940014480215","title":"The Call of the Wild","description":"Chapter I. Into the Primitive\u003cbr\u003e\"Old longings nomadic leap,\u003cbr\u003eChafing at custom's chain;\u003cbr\u003eAgain from its brumal sleep\u003cbr\u003eWakens the ferine strain.\"\u003cbr\u003eBuck did not read the newspapers, or he would have known that trouble\u003cbr\u003ewas brewing, not alone for himself, but for every tide-water dog,\u003cbr\u003estrong\u003cbr\u003eof muscle and with warm, long hair, from Puget Sound to San Diego.\u003cbr\u003eBecause men, groping in the Arctic darkness, had found a yellow metal,\u003cbr\u003eand because steamship and transportation companies were booming the\u003cbr\u003efind, thousands of men were rushing into the Northland. These men\u003cbr\u003ewanted\u003cbr\u003edogs, and the dogs they wanted were heavy dogs, with strong muscles by\u003cbr\u003ewhich to toil, and furry coats to protect them from the frost.\u003cbr\u003eBuck lived at a big house in the sun-kissed Santa Clara Valley. Judge\u003cbr\u003eMiller's place, it was called. It stood back from the road, half\u003cbr\u003ehidden\u003cbr\u003eamong the trees, through which glimpses could be caught of the wide\u003cbr\u003ecool veranda that ran around its four sides. The house was approached\u003cbr\u003eby\u003cbr\u003egravelled driveways which wound about through wide-spreading lawns and\u003cbr\u003eunder the interlacing boughs of tall poplars. At the rear things were\u003cbr\u003eon\u003cbr\u003ePage 1\u003cbr\u003eThe Call of the Wild\u003cbr\u003eeven a more spacious scale than at the front. There were great\u003cbr\u003estables,\u003cbr\u003ewhere a dozen grooms and boys held forth, rows of vine-clad servants'\u003cbr\u003ecottages, an endless and orderly array of outhouses, long grape\u003cbr\u003earbors,\u003cbr\u003egreen pastures, orchards, and berry patches. Then there was the\u003cbr\u003epumping\u003cbr\u003eplant for the artesian well, and the big cement tank where Judge\u003cbr\u003eMiller's boys took their morning plunge and kept cool in the hot\u003cbr\u003eafternoon.\u003cbr\u003eAnd over this great demesne Buck ruled. Here he was born, and here he\u003cbr\u003ehad lived the four years of his life. It was true, there were other\u003cbr\u003edogs, There could not but be other dogs on so vast a place, but they\u003cbr\u003edid\u003cbr\u003enot count. They came and went, resided in the populous kennels, or\u003cbr\u003elived\u003cbr\u003eobscurely in the recesses of the house after the fashion of Toots, the\u003cbr\u003eJapanese pug, or Ysabel, the Mexican hairless,--strange creatures that\u003cbr\u003erarely put nose out of doors or set foot to ground. On the other hand,\u003cbr\u003ethere were the fox terriers, a score of them at least, who yelped\u003cbr\u003efearful promises at Toots and Ysabel looking out of the windows at\u003cbr\u003ethem\u003cbr\u003eand protected by a legion of housemaids armed with brooms and mops.\u003cbr\u003eBut Buck was neither house-dog nor kennel-dog. The whole realm was\u003cbr\u003ehis.\u003cbr\u003eHe plunged into the swimming tank or went hunting with the Judge's\u003cbr\u003esons;\u003cbr\u003ehe escorted Mollie and Alice, the Judge's daughters, on long twilight\u003cbr\u003eor early morning rambles; on wintry nights he lay at the Judge's feet\u003cbr\u003ebefore the roaring library fire; he carried the Judge's grandsons on\u003cbr\u003ehis\u003cbr\u003eback, or rolled them in the grass, and guarded their footsteps through\u003cbr\u003ewild adventures down to the fountain in the stable yard, and even\u003cbr\u003ebeyond, where the paddocks were, and the berry patches. Among the\u003cbr\u003eterriers he stalked imperiously, and Toots and Ysabel he utterly\u003cbr\u003eignored, for he was king,--king over all creeping, crawling, flying\u003cbr\u003ethings of Judge Miller's place, humans included.\u003cbr\u003eHis father, Elmo, a huge St. Bernard, had been the Judge's inseparable\u003cbr\u003ecompanion, and Buck bid fair to follow in the way of his father. He\u003cbr\u003ewas\u003cbr\u003enot so large,--he weighed only one hundred and forty pounds,--for his\u003cbr\u003emother, Shep, had been a Scotch shepherd dog. Nevertheless, one\u003cbr\u003ehundred\u003cbr\u003eand forty pounds, to which was added the dignity that comes of good\u003cbr\u003eliving and universal respect, enabled him to carry himself in right\u003cbr\u003eroyal fashion. During the four years since his puppyhood he had lived\u003cbr\u003ethe life of a sated aristocrat; he had a fine pride in himself, was\u003cbr\u003eeven\u003cbr\u003ea trifle egotistical, as country gentlemen sometimes become because of\u003cbr\u003ePage 2\u003cbr\u003eThe Call of the Wild\u003cbr\u003etheir insular situation. But he had saved himself by not becoming a\u003cbr\u003emere\u003cbr\u003epampered house-dog. Hunting and kindred outdoor delights had kept down\u003cbr\u003ethe fat and hardened his muscles; and to him, as to the cold-tubbing\u003cbr\u003eraces, the love of water had been a tonic and a health preserver.\u003cbr\u003eAnd this was the manner of dog Buck was in the fall of 1897, when the\u003cbr\u003eKlondike strike dragged men from all the world into the frozen North.\u003cbr\u003eBut Buck did not read the newspapers, and he did not know that Manuel,\u003cbr\u003eone of the gardener's helpers, was an undesirable acquaintance. Manuel\u003cbr\u003ehad one besetting sin. He loved to play Chinese lottery. Also, in his\u003cbr\u003egambling, he had one besetting weakness--faith in a system; and this\u003cbr\u003emade his damnation certain. For to play a system requires money, while\u003cbr\u003ethe wages of a gardener's helper do not lap over the needs of a wife\u003cbr\u003eand\u003cbr\u003enumerous progeny.\u003cbr\u003eThe Judge was at a meeting of the Raisin Growers' Association, and the\u003cbr\u003eboys ...","brand":"All classic book warehouse","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47070615503088,"sku":"2940014480215","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940014480215_p0.jpg?v=1763609299","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014480215","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}