The thought made the old man panicky for the moment, and he stretched forth a palsied hand which wandered tremblingly over the small heap of dry wood beside him. Reassured8 that it was indeed there, his hand returned to the shelter of his mangy furs, and he again fell to listening. The sulky crackling of half-frozen hides told him that the chief's moose-skin lodge9 had been struck, and even then was being rammed10 and jammed into portable compass. The chief was his son, stalwart and strong, head man of the tribesmen, and a mighty11 hunter. As the women toiled13 with the camp luggage, his voice rose, chiding14 them for their slowness. Old Koskoosh strained his ears. It was the last time he would hear that voice. There went Geehow's lodge! And Tusken's! Seven, eight, nine; only the shaman's could be still standing15. There! They were at work upon it now. He could hear the shaman grunt16 as he piled it on the sled. A child whimpered, and a woman soothed17 it with soft, crooning gutturals. Little Koo-tee, the old man thought, a fretful child, and not overstrong. It would die soon, perhaps, and they would burn a hole through the frozen tundra18 and pile rocks above to keep the wolverines away. Well, what did it matter? A few years at best, and as many an empty belly19 as a full one. And in the end, Death waited, ever-hungry and hungriest of them all.
What was that? Oh, the men lashing20 the sleds and drawing tight the thongs21. He listened, who would listen no more. The whip-lashes snarled22 and bit among the dogs. Hear them whine23! How they hated the work and the trail! They were off! Sled after sled churned slowly away into the silence. They were gone. They had passed out of his life, and he faced the last bitter hour alone. No. The snow crunched24 beneath a moccasin; a man stood beside him; upon his head a hand rested gently. His son was good to do this thing. He remembered other old men whose sons had not waited after the tribe. But his son had. He wandered away into the past, till the young man's voice brought him back.
"Is it well with you?" he asked.
And the old man answered, "It is well."
"There be wood beside you," the younger man continued, "and the fire burns bright. The morning is gray, and the cold has broken. It will snow presently. Even now is it snowing."
"Ay, even now is it snowing."
"The tribesmen hurry. Their bales are heavy, and their bellies25 flat with lack of feasting. The trail is long and they travel fast. I go now. It is well?"
"It is well. I am as a last year's leaf, clinging lightly to the stem. The first breath that blows, and I fall. My voice is become like an old woman's. My eyes no longer show me the way of my feet, and my feet are heavy, and I am tired. It is well."
He bowed his head in content till the last noise of the complaining snow had died away, and he knew his son was beyond recall. Then his hand crept out in haste to the wood. It alone stood between him and the eternity26 that yawned in upon him. At last the measure of his life was a handful of fagots. One by one they would go to feed the fire, and just so, step by step, death would creep upon him. When the last stick had surrendered up its heat, the frost would begin to gather strength. First his feet would yield, then his hands; and the numbness27 would travel, slowly, from the extremities28 to the body. His head would fall forward upon his knees, and he would rest. It was easy. All men must die.
He did not complain. It was the way of life, and it was just. He had been born close to the earth, close to the earth had he lived, and the law thereof was not new to him. It was the law of all flesh. Nature was not kindly29 to the flesh. She had no concern for that concrete thing called the individual. Her interest lay in the species, the race. This was the deepest abstraction old Koskoosh's barbaric mind was capable of, but he grasped it firmly. He saw it exemplified in all life. The rise of the sap, the bursting greenness of the willow30 bud, the fall of the yellow leaf—in this alone was told the whole history. But one task did Nature set the individual. Did he not perform it, he died. Did he perform it, it was all the same, he died. Nature did not care; there were plenty who were obedient, and it was only the obedience31 in this matter, not the obedient, which lived and lived always. The tribe of Koskoosh was very old. The old men he had known when a boy, had known old men before them. Therefore it was true that the tribe lived, that it stood for the obedience of all its members, way down into the forgotten past, whose very resting-places were unremembered. They did not count; they were episodes. They had passed away like clouds from a summer sky. He also was an episode, and would pass away. Nature did not care. To life she set one task, gave one law. To perpetuate32 was the task of life, its law was death. A maiden33 was a good creature to look upon, full-breasted and strong, with spring to her step and light in her eyes. But her task was yet before her. The light in her eyes brightened, her step quickened, she was now bold with the young men, now timid, and she gave them of her own unrest. And ever she grew fairer and yet fairer to look upon, till some hunter, able no longer to withhold34 himself, took her to his lodge to cook and toil12 for him and to become the mother of his children. And with the coming of her offspring her looks left her. Her limbs dragged and shuffled35, her eyes dimmed and bleared, and only the little children found joy against the withered cheek of the old squaw by the fire. Her task was done. But a little while, on the first pinch of famine or the first long trail, and she would be left, even as he had been left, in the snow, with a little pile of wood. Such was the law.
He placed a stick carefully upon the fire and resumed his meditations36. It was the same everywhere, with all things. The mosquitoes vanished with the first frost. The little tree-squirrel crawled away to die. When age settled upon the rabbit it became slow and heavy, and could no longer outfoot its enemies. Even the big bald-face grew clumsy and blind and quarrelsome, in the end to be dragged down by a handful of yelping37 huskies. He remembered how he had abandoned his own father on an upper reach of the Klondike one winter, the winter before the missionary38 came with his talk-books and his box of medicines. Many a time had Koskoosh smacked39 his lips over the recollection of that box, though now his mouth refused to moisten. The "painkiller40" had been especially good. But the missionary was a bother after all, for he brought no meat into the camp, and he ate heartily41, and the hunters grumbled42. But he chilled his lungs on the divide by the Mayo, and the dogs afterwards nosed the stones away and fought over his bones.
Koskoosh placed another stick on the fire and harked back deeper into the past. There was the time of the Great Famine, when the old men crouched44 empty-bellied45 to the fire, and let fall from their lips dim traditions of the ancient day when the Yukon ran wide open for three winters, and then lay frozen for three summers. He had lost his mother in that famine. In the summer the salmon46 run had failed, and the tribe looked forward to the winter and the coming of the caribou47. Then the winter came, but with it there were no caribou. Never had the like been known, not even in the lives of the old men. But the caribou did not come, and it was the seventh year, and the rabbits had not replenished48, and the dogs were naught49 but bundles of bones. And through the long darkness the children wailed50 and died, and the women, and the old men; and not one in ten of the tribe lived to meet the sun when it came back in the spring. That was a famine!
But he had seen times of plenty, too, when the meat spoiled on their hands, and the dogs were fat and worthless with overeating—times when they let the game go unkilled, and the women were fertile, and the lodges51 were cluttered52 with sprawling53 men-children and women-children. Then it was the men became high-stomached, and revived ancient quarrels, and crossed the divides to the south to kill the Pellys, and to the west that they might sit by the dead fires of the Tananas. He remembered, when a boy, during a time of plenty, when he saw a moose pulled down by the wolves. Zing-ha lay with him in the snow and watched—Zing-ha, who later became the craftiest54 of hunters, and who, in the end, fell through an air-hole on the Yukon. They found him, a month afterward43, just as he had crawled halfway55 out and frozen stiff to the ice.
But the moose. Zing-ha and he had gone out that day to play at hunting after the manner of their fathers. On the bed of the creek56 they struck the fresh track of a moose, and with it the tracks of many wolves. "An old one," Zing-ha, who was quicker at reading the sign, said—"an old one who cannot keep up with the herd57. The wolves have cut him out from his brothers, and they will never leave him." And it was so. It was their way. By day and by night, never resting, snarling58 on his heels, snapping at his nose, they would stay by him to the end. How Zing-ha and he felt the blood-lust quicken! The finish would be a sight to see!
Eager-footed, they took the trail, and even he, Koskoosh, slow of sight and an unversed tracker, could have followed it blind, it was so wide. Hot were they on the heels of the chase, reading the grim tragedy, fresh-written, at every step. Now they came to where the moose had made a stand. Thrice the length of a grown man's body, in every direction, had the snow been stamped about and uptossed. In the midst were the deep impressions of the splay-hoofed game, and all about, everywhere, were the lighter59 footmarks of the wolves. Some, while their brothers harried60 the kill, had lain to one side and rested. The full-stretched impress of their bodies in the snow was as perfect as though made the moment before. One wolf had been caught in a wild lunge of the maddened victim and trampled61 to death. A few bones, well picked, bore witness.
Again, they ceased the uplift of their snowshoes at a second stand. Here the great animal had fought desperately62. Twice had he been dragged down, as the snow attested63, and twice had he shaken his assailants clear and gained footing once more. He had done his task long since, but none the less was life dear to him. Zing-ha said it was a strange thing, a moose once down to get free again; but this one certainly had. The shaman would see signs and wonders in this when they told him.
And yet again, they come to where the moose had made to mount the bank and gain the timber. But his foes64 had laid on from behind, till he reared and fell back upon them, crushing two deep into the snow. It was plain the kill was at hand, for their brothers had left them untouched. Two more stands were hurried past, brief in time-length and very close together. The trail was red now, and the clean stride of the great beast had grown short and slovenly65. Then they heard the first sounds of the battle—not the full-throated chorus of the chase, but the short, snappy bark which spoke66 of close quarters and teeth to flesh. Crawling up the wind, Zing-ha bellied it through the snow, and with him crept he, Koskoosh, who was to be chief of the tribesmen in the years to come. Together they shoved aside the under branches of a young spruce and peered forth. It was the end they saw.
The picture, like all of youth's impressions, was still strong with him, and his dim eyes watched the end played out as vividly67 as in that far-off time. Koskoosh marvelled68 at this, for in the days which followed, when he was a leader of men and a head of councillors, he had done great deeds and made his name a curse in the mouths of the Pellys, to say naught of the strange white man he had killed, knife to knife, in open fight.
For long he pondered on the days of his youth, till the fire died down and the frost bit deeper. He replenished it with two sticks this time, and gauged69 his grip on life by what remained. If Sit-cum-to-ha had only remembered her grandfather, and gathered a larger armful, his hours would have been longer. It would have been easy. But she was ever a careless child, and honored not her ancestors from the time the Beaver70, son of the son of Zing-ha, first cast eyes upon her. Well, what mattered it? Had he not done likewise in his own quick youth? For a while he listened to the silence. Perhaps the heart of his son might soften71, and he would come back with the dogs to take his old father on with the tribe to where the caribou ran thick and the fat hung heavy upon them.
He strained his ears, his restless brain for the moment stilled. Not a stir, nothing. He alone took breath in the midst of the great silence. It was very lonely. Hark! What was that? A chill passed over his body. The familiar, long-drawn howl broke the void, and it was close at hand. Then on his darkened eyes was projected the vision of the moose—the old bull moose—the torn flanks and bloody72 sides, the riddled73 mane, and the great branching horns, down low and tossing to the last. He saw the flashing forms of gray, the gleaming eyes, the lolling tongues, the slavered fangs74. And he saw the inexorable circle close in till it became a dark point in the midst of the stamped snow.
A cold muzzle75 thrust against his cheek, and at its touch his soul leaped back to the present. His hand shot into the fire and dragged out a burning faggot. Overcome for the nonce by his hereditary76 fear of man, the brute77 retreated, raising a prolonged call to his brothers; and greedily they answered, till a ring of crouching78, jaw-slobbered gray was stretched round about. The old man listened to the drawing in of this circle. He waved his brand wildly, and sniffs79 turned to snarls80; but the panting brutes81 refused to scatter82. Now one wormed his chest forward, dragging his haunches after, now a second, now a third; but never a one drew back. Why should he cling to life? he asked, and dropped the blazing stick into the snow. It sizzled and went out. The circle grunted83 uneasily, but held its own. Again he saw the last stand of the old bull moose, and Koskoosh dropped his head wearily upon his knees. What did it matter after all? Was it not the law of life?
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1
penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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2
glimmering
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| n.微光，隐约的一瞥adj.薄弱地发光的v.发闪光，发微光( glimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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3
abode
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| n.住处，住所 | |
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withered
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| adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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5
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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shrilly
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| 尖声的； 光亮的，耀眼的 | |
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7
cuffed
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| v.掌打，拳打( cuff的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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8
reassured
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| adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词) | |
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9
lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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10
rammed
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| v.夯实（土等）( ram的过去式和过去分词 )；猛撞；猛压；反复灌输 | |
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11
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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12
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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13
toiled
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的过去式和过去分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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14
chiding
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| v.责骂，责备( chide的现在分词 ) | |
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15
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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16
grunt
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| v.嘟哝；作呼噜声；n.呼噜声，嘟哝 | |
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17
soothed
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| v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 )；抚慰；使舒服；减轻痛苦 | |
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18
tundra
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| n.苔原，冻土地带 | |
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belly
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| n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛 | |
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20
lashing
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| n.鞭打；痛斥；大量；许多v.鞭打( lash的现在分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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21
thongs
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| 的东西 | |
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22
snarled
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| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的过去式和过去分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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23
whine
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| v.哀号，号哭；n.哀鸣 | |
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24
crunched
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| v.嘎吱嘎吱地咬嚼( crunch的过去式和过去分词 )；嘎吱作响；（快速大量地）处理信息；数字捣弄 | |
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25
bellies
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| n.肚子( belly的名词复数 )；腹部；（物体的）圆形或凸起部份；腹部…形的 | |
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26
eternity
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| n.不朽，来世；永恒，无穷 | |
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27
numbness
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| n.无感觉，麻木，惊呆 | |
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28
extremities
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| n.端点( extremity的名词复数 )；尽头；手和足；极窘迫的境地 | |
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29
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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30
willow
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| n.柳树 | |
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31
obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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32
perpetuate
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| v.使永存，使永记不忘 | |
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33
maiden
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| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
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34
withhold
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| v.拒绝，不给；使停止，阻挡 | |
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35
shuffled
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| v.洗（纸牌）( shuffle的过去式和过去分词 )；拖着脚步走；粗心地做；摆脱尘世的烦恼 | |
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36
meditations
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| 默想( meditation的名词复数 )； 默念； 沉思； 冥想 | |
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37
yelping
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| v.发出短而尖的叫声( yelp的现在分词 ) | |
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38
missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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39
smacked
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| 拍，打，掴( smack的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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40
painkiller
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| n.止痛药 | |
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41
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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42
grumbled
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| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
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43
afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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44
crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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45
bellied
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| adj.有腹的，大肚子的 | |
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46
salmon
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| n.鲑，大马哈鱼，橙红色的 | |
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47
caribou
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| n.北美驯鹿 | |
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48
replenished
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| 补充( replenish的过去式和过去分词 )； 重新装满 | |
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49
naught
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| n.无，零 [=nought] | |
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50
wailed
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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51
lodges
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| v.存放( lodge的第三人称单数 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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52
cluttered
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| v.杂物，零乱的东西零乱vt.( clutter的过去式和过去分词 )；乱糟糟地堆满，把…弄得很乱；（以…） 塞满… | |
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53
sprawling
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| adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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54
craftiest
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| 狡猾的，狡诈的( crafty的最高级 ) | |
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55
halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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56
creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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57
herd
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| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
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58
snarling
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| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的现在分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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59
lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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60
harried
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| v.使苦恼( harry的过去式和过去分词 )；不断烦扰；一再袭击；侵扰 | |
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61
trampled
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| 踩( trample的过去式和过去分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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62
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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63
attested
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| adj.经检验证明无病的，经检验证明无菌的v.证明( attest的过去式和过去分词 )；证实；声称…属实；使宣誓 | |
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64
foes
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| 敌人，仇敌( foe的名词复数 ) | |
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65
slovenly
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| adj.懒散的，不整齐的，邋遢的 | |
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66
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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vividly
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| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
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marvelled
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| v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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69
gauged
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| adj.校准的；标准的；量规的；量计的v.（用仪器）测量( gauge的过去式和过去分词 )；估计；计量；划分 | |
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70
beaver
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| n.海狸，河狸 | |
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71
soften
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| v.(使)变柔软；(使)变柔和 | |
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72
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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73
riddled
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| adj.布满的；充斥的；泛滥的v.解谜，出谜题(riddle的过去分词形式) | |
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74
fangs
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| n.（尤指狗和狼的）长而尖的牙( fang的名词复数 )；（蛇的）毒牙；罐座 | |
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75
muzzle
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| n.鼻口部；口套；枪(炮)口；vt.使缄默 | |
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76
hereditary
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| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
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77
brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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78
crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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79
sniffs
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| v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的第三人称单数 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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80
snarls
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| n.（动物的）龇牙低吼( snarl的名词复数 )；愤怒叫嚷（声）；咆哮（声）；疼痛叫声v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的第三人称单数 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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81
brutes
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| 兽( brute的名词复数 )； 畜生； 残酷无情的人； 兽性 | |
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82
scatter
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| vt.撒，驱散，散开；散布/播；vi.分散，消散 | |
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83
grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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