BOOKS TO READ WHILE you are reading this section on THE OUT-OF-DOORS, choose several of the books named below and read them. Keep in your notebook a list of all you read. ALLEN, CHARLES F. David Crockett, Scout. J. B. Lippincott Company "Davy" Crockett was a pioneer, a real American. A fine book for the young scout. BASKETT, J. N., and DITMARS, R. L. The Story of Amphibians and Reptiles. D. Appleton and Company A most interesting story accompanied by colored plates of reptiles and their near relatives. BERRY, JAMES BERTHOLD. Western Forest Trees. World Book Company Giving names, physical characteristics, habits, and uses of trees for the practical student and also for the tourist, camper, vacationist, and nature student. BICKNELL, PERCY F. The Human Side of Fabre. The Century Company A biography which is largely an autobiography of a great French naturalist, whose science stories for young people have interested many grown-ups 00. BLANCHAN, NELTJE. Bird Neighbors. Doubleday, Page and Company The common birds of garden, meadow, and woods in words and pictures. BURGESS, THORNTON W. The Burgess Bird Book for Children. Little, Brown and Company In story and illustration the author gives us glimpses of the common birds. BURROUGHS, JOHN. Company Bird Stories from Burroughs. Bird Stories from Burroughs. Houghton Mifflin Stories and poems selected from John Burroughs's books. Illustrations by Louis Agassiz Fuertes. CAMPFIRE GIRLS. Official Handbook. Campfire Girls CLARK, GRAVES GLENWOOD. Tiny Toilers and Their Works. The Century Company Shows our insect neighbors and their habits in so absorbing a manner that it will delight not only the young naturalist but fireside and schoolroom as well." HARRIS, JOEL CHANDLER. Uncle Remus: His Songs and Sayings. D. Appleton and Company Légends of the old plantation with "Brer Rabbit," Mr. Possum, Mr. HOLLAND, W. J. Butterfly Book. Doubleday, Page and Company With gorgeous colored pictures for real lovers of butterflies and moths. HORNADAY, WILLIAM T. The Minds and Manners of Wild Animals. Charles Scribner's Sons A fascinating collection of stories showing the intelligent behavior of wild animals. "The wild animal must think or die." HUDSON, W. H. Far Away and Long Ago. E. P. Dutton and Company The author's story of his life as a solitary boy in the Argentine. HUTTON, LAURENCE. A Boy I Knew, and Four Dogs and Some More Dogs. Harper and Brothers A boy in New York City seventy years ago and the dogs he loved. KIPLING, RUDYARD. The Jungle Books. Doubleday, Page and Company In which snakes, elephants, tigers, wolves, bears, and monkeys teach the "man's cub" the "law of the jungle." LONDON, JACK. The Call of the Wild The Macmillan Company How Buck, the big pampered house dog, becomes the leader of a pack of wolves in the wild days of the Alaska gold fever. MILLS, ENOS A. The Story of a Thousand-Year Pine. Houghton Mifflin Company The story of an old, old tree in the Rockies, and of the wild animals which played about it. MUIR, JOHN. Stickeen: The Story of a Dog. Houghton Mifflin Company One of the best dog stories ever written. The Story of My Boyhood and Youth. Houghton Mifflin Company One of America's nature lovers tells of boyhood on his father's farm, where he invented machines. Later he went to school and college and became a great geologist and explorer. OLLIVANT, ALFRED. Bob, Son of Battle. Doubleday, Page and Company "Owd Bob" is the last of a fine and sagacious race of shepherd dogs, whose story is as entrancing as a novel. ROBERTS, CHARLES G. D. Kindred of the Wild. L. C. Page and Company A story of hunting and camping and the wild animals that may be seen in field and forest. ROOSEVELT, THEODORE. The Wilderness Hunter. G. P. Putnam's Sons Hunting stories of the Rockies and its foothills, told by a great hunter. SCOUTING FOR BOYS: Handbook for Boys. Boy Scouts of America Official handbook covering scoutcraft, woodcraft, wild life and conservation, campcraft, etc. SCOUTING FOR GIRLS: Official Handbook. Girl Scouts SETON, ERNEST THOMPSON. Boy Scouts of America. Doubleday, Page and Company Two Little Savages. Doubleday, Page and Company This out-of-doors writer tells how to live in the open; wigwams and outdoor cooking. Wild Animals I Have Known. Charles Scribner's Sons In which dogs, wolves, horses, and foxes behave with human intelli- SEWELL, ANNA. Black Beauty. Rand, McNally and Company TERHUNE, ALBERT PAYSON. Lad; A Dog. E. P. Dutton and Company His Dog. E. P. Dutton and Company "Lad" was the author's friend through sixteen years; "Bruce" was a Red Cross dog; and "His Dog" renewed the courage of a very weak All are "true collies from the tip of their inquiring noses to the last hair of their waving tails." man. THOMPSON, JEAN M. Water Wonders Every Child Should Know. Grosset and Dunlap Dew, rain, frost, snow, and ice; with pictures. THOREAU, H. D. Walden. Houghton Mifflin Company Thoreau built a cottage on the shore of Walden Pond at a cost of $28.12. Here he lived for two years. The book tells what he did, saw, and thought in the two years. WHITE, STEWART EDWARD. Daniel Boone: Wilderness Scout. Doubleday, Page and Company One of the latest and best of the many tales of this great American pioneer. An out-of-doors book for boys and girls. -The Blazed Trail. Doubleday, Page and Company The lumbering days in Michigan, when men roughed it in the forests and along the rivers. Tale of Harry Thorpe, a magnificent, picturesque pioneer. MEN AND ANIMALS THE LAW OF CLUB AND FANG 1 JACK LONDON BUCK's first day on the Dyea Beach was like a nightmare. These dogs and men were not town dogs and men. They were savages, all of them, who knew no law but the law of club and fang. He had never seen dogs fight as these wolfish creatures fought, and his first experience taught him an unforgetable lesson. It is true, it was a vicarious experience, else he would not have lived to profit by it. Curly was the victim. They were camped near the log store, where she, in her friendly way, made advances to a husky dog the size of a full-grown wolf, though not half so large as she. There was no warning, only a leap in like a flash, a metallic clip of teeth, a leap out equally swift, and Curly's face was ripped open from eye to jaw. It was the wolf manner of fighting, to strike and leap away; but there was more to it than this. Thirty or forty huskies ran to the spot and surrounded the combatants in an intent and silent circle. Buck did not comprehend that silent intentness, nor the eager way with which they were licking their chops. Curly rushed her antagonist, who struck again and leaped aside. He met her next rush with his chest, in a peculiar fashion that tumbled her off her feet. She never regained them. This was what the onlooking huskies had waited for. They closed in upon her, snarling and yelping, and she was buried, screaming with agony, beneath the bristling mass of bodies. So sudden was it, and so unexpected, that Buck was taken aback. He saw Spitz run out his scarlet tongue in a way he 1 From Jack London's Call of the Wild, copyrighted by The Macmillan Company. Used by permission. had of laughing; and he saw François, swinging an ax, spring into the mess of dogs. Three men with clubs were helping him to scatter them. It did not take long. Two minutes from the time Curly went down, the last of her assailants were clubbed off. But she lay there limp and lifeless in the bloody, trampled snow, almost literally torn to pieces, the swart half-breed standing over her and cursing horribly. The scene often came back to Buck to trouble him in his sleep. So that was the way. No fair play. Once down, that was the end of you. Well, he would see to it that he never went down. Spitz ran out his tongue and laughed again, and from that moment Buck hated him with a bitter and deathless hatred. Before he had recovered from the shock caused by the tragic passing of Curly, he received another shock. François fastened upon him an arrangement of straps and buckles. It was a harness, such as he had seen the grooms put on the horses at home. And as he had seen horses work, so he was set to work, hauling François on a sled to the forest that fringed the valley, and returning with a load of firewood. Though his dignity was sorely hurt by thus being made a draught animal, he was too wise to rebel. He buckled down with a will and did his best, though it was all new and strange. François was stern, demanding instant obedience, and by virtue of his whip receiving instant obedience; while Dave, who was an experienced wheeler, nipped Buck's hind quarters whenever he was in error. Spitz was the leader, likewise experienced, and while he could not always get at Buck, he growled sharp reproof now and again, or cunningly threw his weight in the traces to jerk Buck into the way he should go. Buck learned easily and under the combined tuition of his two mates and François made remarkable progress. Ere they returned to camp he knew enough to stop at "ho," to go ahead at "mush," to swing wide on the bends, and to keep clear of the wheeler when the loaded sled shot downhill at their heels. |