Jack London White Fang 4th grade students Girkalnis basic school Lithuania
A long time ago, in an icy cold forest in the north of Canada there lived a little grey wolf. Life was very difficult but the little grey wolf was happy. One day his mother went to look for food. She was half wolf and half dog and she was very good at finding food. But the little wolf was tired of waiting and he was hungry! He went down to the river to look for her. There were some Indians by the river. He barked and showed his teeth but they just laughed. ‘Look at his white teeth! Let’s call him White Fang,’ said an Indian called Grey Beaver. Grey Beaver took White Fang to his village. White Fang was very cold and hungry and he wanted his mother. He saw a strange thing on the ground. It looked like the sun! He smelled it and OOOOOOW, his nose hurt! The Indians laughet at him. ‘That’s fire!’ said Grey Beaver. White Fang became a sleddog. But the other dogs hated him because he was different. White Fang learned to fight them. He learned to be the quickest, the cleverest and the most dangerous. No-one was kind to White Fang so White Fang was kind to no-one.
White Fang went to Fort Yukon with Grey Beaver. Many men went to Fort Yukon to look for gold. Grey Beaver wasn‘t kind and he often hit White Fang but he wasn‘t cruel. Then, Grey Beaver sold White Fang to Beauty Smith. Beauty Smith was cruel. Very cruel! White Fang wanted to go back to the forest, or to Grey Beaver or anywhere… but he couldn’t. Beauty Smith was a lazy man and he wanted to make money quickly. He kept White Fang in a cage and he made him fight other dogs. People paid Beauty Smith money to see the dog fights. White Fang became angrier and angrier, fiercer and fiercer and more and more dangerous. One day White Fang fought a bulldog. ‘This will be very easy,’ he thought. But the bulldog caught White Fang’s neck from below and held on. White Fang fell over. It was the end of him! Suddenly a man called Scott ran to the dogs. He said to Beauty Smith, ‘STOP IT! This is horrible!’ When Beauty Smith did nothing Scott opened the bulldog’s mouth and another man, Matt, pulled White Fang away.
Scott bought White Fang from Beauty Smith and took him to his cabin. Scott tried to touch White Fang but he bit him. ‚He‘s a wolf and he will never learn to be with people,‘ said his friend, Matt. Every day Scott spent a long time talking kindly to White Fang. One day White Fang ate some meat that Scott was holding in his hand. Very slowly White Fang became friendlier. He waited for Scott to come home and let him pat his head. He was sad when Scott was not at home. Then it was time for Scott to stop looking for gold and go home to California. One day he packed hid bags and left. White Fang howled and howled from inside the cabin. He didn‘t want Scott to leave! While Scott was on the boat saying goodbye to Matt, White Fang jumped through the window and ran to the boat. He wanted to stay with Scott.
Scott took White Fang with him to his parent‘s house in California. His father was a judge and they lived in a big house in the country. White Fang started to jump up at Scott‘s mother. ‚No no, down down!’ said Scott. ‘Don’t worry‘, Scott said to his parents. ‘White Fang is very intelligent and he learns quickly.’ In Scott’s house there was another dog… a female dog called Collie. Collie did not like White Fang because he was three quarters wolf and at first she tried to keep him away from the family. Slowly the family started to like White Fang and White Fang started to like the family. Even Collie started to be friendlier! One day Scott was reading the newspaper. He read some news to his father. ‘Listen… a dangerous criminal, Jim Hall has escaped from prison. The police are looking for him. You put Jim Hall into prison father. I hope he doesn’t come to look for you’. Scott’s dad laughed, ‘Don’t worry Scott. The police will catch him soon.’
That night White Fang was sleeping downstairs in the front hall when he heard a noise. He woke up. He smelt something strange and then… suddenly he saw a man he didn’t know going up the stairs. White Fang quickly jumped up at the man and bit his leg. The man kicked White Fang and shouted loudly but White Fang held on. The man fell down the stairs with him. The noise of the man‘s shouts woke the family and they came running downstairs. They found Jim Hall laying at the bottom of the stairs and beside him White Fang breathing very slowly. „Get the doctor!” shouted Scott. The doctor came to see White Fang. “I am afraid he has a bad cut on his back and two badly broken legs, he may not live”, said the doctor. All the family were very sad.
But White Fang was strong and Scott’s family looked after him well. In his dreams, White Fang saw his mother, Grey Beaver and Beauty Smith. Before he met Scott his life had been terrible, with fighting and people hitting him and not having enough to eat. But now White Fang had a family and he was loved. Slowly he got better. One day Scott said to White Fang, “Come with me. I want to show you something”. White Fang’s legs were still weak but he followed Scott outside. And there was Collie with… six small puppies. Two of them were all grey. Fang was a father!
The End