Not only was White Fang adaptable by nature, but he had travelled much, and knew the meaning and necessity of adjustment.Here, in Sierra Vista, which was the name of Judge Scott's place, White Fang quickly began to make himself at home.He had no further serious trouble with the dogs.
They knew more about the ways of the Southland gods than did he, and in their eyes he had qualified when he accompanied the gods inside the house.
Wolf that he was, and unprecedented as it was, the gods had sanctioned his presence, and they, the dogs of the gods, could only recognize this sanction.
Dick, perforce, had to go through a few stiff formalities at first, after which he calmly accepted White Fang as an addition to the premises.
Had Dick had his way, they would have been good friends; but White Fang was adverse to friendship.All he asked of other dogs was to be let alone.
His whole life he had kept aloof from his kind, and he still desired to keep aloof.Dick's overtures bothered him, so he snarled Dick away.In the north he had learned the lesson that he must let the master's dogs alone, and he did not forget that lesson now.But he insisted on his own privacy and self-seclusion, and so thoroughly ignored Dick that that good-natured creature finally gave him up and scarcely took as much interest in him as in the hitching-post near the stable.
Not so with Collie.While she accepted him because it was the mandate of the gods, that was no reason that she should leave him in peace.Woven into her being was the memory of countless crimes he and his had perpetrated against her ancestry.Not in a day nor a generation were the ravaged sheepfolds to be forgotten.All this was a spur to her, pricking her to retaliation.
She could not fly in the face of the gods who permitted him, but that did not prevent her from making life miserable for him in petty ways.A feud, ages old, was between them, and she, for one, would see to it that he was reminded.
So Collie took advantage of her sex to pick upon White Fang and maltreat him.His instinct would not permit him to attack her, while her persistence would not permit him to ignore her.When she rushed at him he turned his fur-protected shoulder to her sharp teeth and walked away stiff-legged and stately.When she forced him too hard, he was compelled to go about in a circle, his shoulder presented to her, his head turned from her, and on his face and in his eyes a patient and bored expression.Sometimes, however, a nip on his hind-quarters hastened his retreat and made it anything but stately.But as a rule he managed to maintain a dignity that was almost solemnity.He ignored her existence whenever it was possible, and made it a point to keep out of her way.When he saw or heard her coming, he got up and walked off.
There was much in other matters for White Fang to learn.Life in the Northland was simplicity itself when compared with the complicated affairs of Sierra Vista.First of all, he had to learn the family of the master.
In a way he was prepared to do this.As Mit-sah and Kloo-kooch had belonged to Gray Beaver, sharing his food, his fire, and his blankets, so now, at Sierra Vista, belonged to the love-master all the denizens of the house.
But in this matter there was a difference, and many differences.Sierra Vista was a far vaster affair than the tepee of Gray Beaver.There were many persons to be considered.There was Judge Scott, and there was his wife.There were the master's two sisters, Beth and Mary.There was his wife, Alice, and then there were his children, Weedon and Maud, toddlers of four and six.There was no way for anybody to tell him about all these people, and of blood-ties and relationship he knew nothing whatever and never would be capable of knowing.Yet he quickly worked it out that all of them belonged to the master.Then, by observation, whenever opportunity offered, by study of action, speech, and the very intonations of the voice, he slowly learned the intimacy and the degree of favor they enjoyed with the master.And by this ascertained standard, White Fang treated them accordingly.
What was of value to the master he valued; what was dear to the master was to be cherished by White Fang and guarded carefully.
Thus it was with the two children.All his life he had disliked children.
He hated and feared their hands.The lessons were not tender that he had learned of their tyranny and cruelty in the days of the Indian villages.
When Weedon and Maud had first approached him, he growled warningly and looked malignant.A cuff from the master and a sharp word had then compelled him to permit their caresses, though he growled and growled under their tiny hands, and in the growl there was no crooning note.Later, he observed that the boy and girl were of great value in the master's eyes.Then it was that no cuff nor sharp word was necessary before they could pat him.
Yet White Fang was never effusively affectionate.He yielded to the master's children with an ill but honest grace, and endured their fooling as one would endure a painful operation.When he could no longer endure, he would get up and stalk determinedly away from them.But after a time, he grew even to like the children.Still he was not demonstrative.He would not go up to them.On the other hand, instead of walking away at sight of them, he waited for them to come to him.And still later, it was noticed that a pleased light came into his eyes when he saw them approaching, and that he looked after them with an appearance of curious regret when they left him for other amusements.
