short story summary

short summary. See enclosed reading and worksheet… This 
famous short story can also be found on page 641 of the Norton anthology of American literature

“To Build a Fire” by Jack London

Directions: Respond to the following questions with brief short paragraph responses. Send through the Blackboard assignment portal.

20 POINTS….

Brief summary of the story… Summarize the major action that takes place from the beginning right through the middle and conclusion. What is the major action that takes place in the story?

Describe the major characters and style of narration.

Why is this story a good example of naturalistic fiction? Make connections to the following list of characteristics

NATURALISM

· A portrait of life as rigidly determined by powerful forces beyond human control. These forces could be social, environmental, economic, technological etc. The individual is presented as weak and powerless

· A brutal form of realism

· Influenced by Darwin’s 1859 theory of evolution as well as the 19th and 20th century industrial revolution….life became faster and more brutal…machines….the age of automation…..skyscrapers…. big business and multinational corporations…survival of the fittest….the strong survive, the weak perish!

· The literature is criticized for being pessimistic and void of spirituality as it tends to present humans as just another animal species trying to survive on a daily basis in a cold, cruel world!

Present one two-three sentence direct quotation that supports this as a work of naturalism and briefly defend your selection

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T o B u i l d a F i r e

AY HAD DAWNED COLD AND GRAY WHEN

the man turned aside from the main Yukon trail. He climbed the high

earth-bank where a little-traveled trail led east through the pine for-

est. It was a high bank, and he paused to breathe at the top. He excused

the act to himself by looking at his watch. It was nine o’clock in the

morning. There was no sun or promise of sun, although there was not

a cloud in the sky. It was a clear day. However, there seemed to be an

indescribable darkness over the face of things. That was because the sun

was absent from the sky. This fact did not worry the man. He was not

alarmed by the lack of sun. It had been days since he had seen the sun.

The man looked along the way he had come. The Yukon lay a

mile wide and hidden under three feet of ice. On top of this ice were

as many feet of snow. It was all pure white. North and south, as far as

D

p

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64

his eye could see, it was unbroken white. The one thing that relieved
the whiteness was a thin dark line that curved from the pine-covered
island to the south. It curved into the north, where it disappeared
be hind another pine-covered island. This dark line was the trail—the
main trail. It led south 500 miles to the Chilcoot Pass, and salt water.
It led north

75

miles to Dawson, and still farther on to the north a
thousand miles to Nulato, and finally to St. Michael, on Bering Sea,
a thousand miles and half a thousand more.

But all this—the distant trail, no sun in the sky, the great cold,
and the strangeness of it all—had no effect on the man. It was not
be cause he was long familiar with it. He was a newcomer in the land, and
this was his first winter.

The trouble with him was that he was not able to imagine. He
was quick and ready in the things of life, but only in the things, and not
in their meanings. Fifty degrees below zero meant 80 degrees of frost.
Such facts told him that it was cold and uncomfortable, and that was
all. It did not lead him to consider his weaknesses as a creature affected
by temperature. Nor did he think about man’s general weakness, able
to live only within narrow limits of heat and cold. From there, it did
not lead him to thoughts of heaven and the meaning of a man’s life.
50 degrees below zero meant a bite of frost that hurt and that must be
guarded against by the use of mittens, ear coverings, warm moccasins,
and thick socks. 50 degrees below zero was to him nothing more than
50 degrees below zero. That it should be more important than that was
a thought that never entered his head.

As he turned to go, he forced some water from his mouth as an
experiment. There was a sudden noise that surprised him. He tried it
again. And again, in the air, before they could fall to the snow, the
drops of water became ice that broke with a noise. He knew that at 50
below zero water from the mouth made a noise when it hit the snow.
But this had done that in the air. Undoubtedly it was colder than 50
below. But exactly how much colder he did not know. But the tem-
perature did not matter.

He was headed for the old camp on Henderson Creek, where the

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65

boys were already. They had come across the mountain from the Indian
Creek country. He had taken the long trail to look at the possibility of
floating logs from the islands in the Yukon down the river when the
ice melted. He would be in camp by six o’clock that evening. It would
be a little after dark, but the boys would be there, a fire would be burn-
ing, and a hot supper would be ready. As he thought of lunch, he pressed
his hand against the package under his jacket. It was also under his
shirt, wrapped in a handkerchief, and lying for warmth against the
naked skin. Otherwise, the bread would freeze. He smiled contentedly
to himself as he thought of those pieces of bread, each of which
enclosed a generous portion of cooked meat.

He plunged among the big pine trees. The trail was not well
marked here. Several inches of snow had fallen since the last sled had
passed. He was glad he was without a sled. Actually, he carried noth-
ing but the lunch wrapped in the handkerchief. He was surprised, how-
ever, at the cold. It certainly was cold, he decided, as he rubbed his
nose and face with his mittened hand. He had a good growth of hair
on his face, but that did not protect his nose or the upper part of his
face from the frosty air.

Following at the man’s heels was a big native dog. It was a wolf
dog, gray-coated and not noticeably different from its brother, the wild
wolf. The animal was worried by the great cold. It knew that this was
no time for traveling. Its own feeling was closer to the truth than the
man’s judgment. In reality, it was not merely colder than 50 below
zero; it was colder than 60 below, than

70

below. It was 75 below zero.
Because the freezing point is 32 above zero, it meant that there were
107 degrees of frost.

The dog did not know anything about temperatures. Possibly in
its brain there was no understanding of a condition of very cold, such
as was in the man’s brain. But the animal sensed the danger. Its fear
made it question eagerly every movement of the man as if expecting
him to go into camp or to seek shelter somewhere and build a fire. The
dog had learned about fire, and it wanted fire. Otherwise, it would dig
itself into the snow and find shelter from the cold air.

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66

The frozen moistness of its breathing had settled on its fur in a
fine powder of frost. The hair on the man’s face was similarly frosted,
but more solidly. It took the form of ice and increased with every warm,
moist breath from his mouth. Also, the man had tobacco in his mouth.
The ice held his lips so tightly together that he could not empty the
juice from his mouth. The result was a long piece of yellow ice hang-
ing from his lips. If he fell down it would break, like glass, into many
pieces. He expected the ice formed by the tobacco juice, having been
out twice before when it was very cold. But it had not been as cold as
this, he knew.

He continued through the level forest for several miles. Then he
went down a bank to the frozen path of a small stream. This was Hen-
derson Creek and he knew he was ten miles from where the stream
divided. He looked at his watch. It was ten o’clock. He was traveling
at the rate of four miles an hour. Thus, he figured that he would arrive
where the stream divided at half-past twelve. He decided he would eat
his lunch when he arrived there.

The dog followed again at his heels, with its tail hanging low, as
the man started to walk along the frozen stream. The old sled trail could
be seen, but a dozen inches of snow covered the marks of the last sleds.
In a month no man had traveled up or down that silent creek. The man
went steadily ahead. He was not much of a thinker. At that moment he
had nothing to think about except that he would eat lunch at the
stream’s divide and that at six o’clock he would be in camp with the
boys. There was nobody to talk to; and, had there been, speech would
not have been possible because of the ice around his mouth.

Once in a while the thought repeated itself that it was very cold
and that he had never experienced such cold. As he walked along he
rubbed his face and nose with the back of his mittened hand. He did
this without thinking, frequently changing hands. But, with all his
rubbing, the instant he stopped, his face and nose became numb. His
face would surely be frozen. He knew that and he was sorry that he had
not worn the sort of nose guard Bud wore when it was cold. Such a
guard passed across the nose and covered the entire face. But it did not

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67

matter much, he decided. What was a little frost? A bit painful, that
was all. It was never serious.

Empty as the man’s mind was of thoughts, he was most observant.
He noticed the changes in the creek, the curves and the bends. And
always he noted where he placed his feet. Once, coming around a
bend, he moved suddenly to the side, like a frightened horse. He curved
away from the place where he had been walking and retraced his steps
several feet along the trail. He knew the creek was frozen to the bot-
tom. No creek could contain water in that winter. But he knew also
that there were streams of water that came out from the hillsides and
ran along under the snow and on top of the ice of the creek. He knew
that even in the coldest weather these streams were never frozen, and
he also knew their danger. They hid pools of water under the snow
that might be three inches deep, or three feet. Sometimes a skin of ice
half an inch thick covered them, and in turn was covered by the snow.
Sometimes there was both water and thin ice, and when a man broke
through he could get very wet.

That was why he had jumped away so suddenly. He had felt the
ice move under his feet. He had also heard the noise of the snow-cov-
ered ice skin breaking. And to get his feet wet in such a temperature
meant trouble and danger. At the very least it meant delay, because he
would be forced to stop and build a fire. Only under its protection
could he bare his feet while he dried his socks and moccasins.

He stood and studied the creek bottom and its banks. He decided
that the flowing stream of water came from the right side. He thought
a while, rubbing his nose and face. Then he walked to the left. He
stepped carefully and tested the ice at each step. Once away from the
danger, he continued at his four-mile pace.

During the next two hours he came to several similar dangers.
Usually the snow above the pools had a sunken appearance. However,
once again he came near to falling through the ice. Once, sensing dan-
ger, he made the dog go ahead. The dog did not want to go. It hesitated
until the man pushed it forward. Then it went quickly across the white,
unbroken surface. Suddenly it fell through the ice, but climbed out on

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68

the other side, which was firm. It had wet its feet and legs. Almost
immediately the water on them turned to ice. The dog made quick
efforts to get the ice off its legs. Then it lay down in the snow and began
to bite out the ice that had formed between the toes. The animal knew
enough to do this. To permit the ice to remain would mean sore feet. It
did not know this. It merely obeyed the commands that arose from the
deepest part of its being.

But the man knew these things, having learned them from expe-
rience. He removed the mitten from his right hand and helped the dog
tear out the pieces of ice. He did not bare his fingers more than a minute,
and was surprised to find that they were numb. It certainly was cold.
He pulled on the mitten quickly and beat the hand across his breast.

At twelve o’clock the day was at its brightest. Yet the sun did not
appear in the sky. At half-past twelve, on the minute, he arrived at the
divide of the creek. He was pleased at his rate of speed. If he contin-
ued, he would certainly be with the boys by six o’clock that evening.

He unbuttoned his jacket and shirt and pulled forth his lunch.
The action took no more than a quarter of a minute, yet in that brief
moment the numbness touched his bare fingers. He did not put the
mitten on, but instead, struck the fingers against his leg. Then he sat
down on a snow-covered log to eat. The pain that followed the strik-
ing of his fingers against his leg ceased so quickly that he was fright-
ened. He had not had time to take a bite of his lunch. He struck the
fingers repeatedly and returned them to the mitten. Then he bared the
other hand for the purpose of eating. He tried to take a mouthful, but
the ice around his mouth prevented him.

Then he knew what was wrong. He had forgotten to build a fire
and warm himself. He laughed at his own foolishness. As he laughed,
he noted the numbness in his bare fingers. Also, he noted that the
feeling which had first come to his toes when he sat down was already
passing away. He wondered whether the toes were warm or whether
they were numb. He moved them inside the moccasins and decided
that they were numb.

He pulled the mitten on hurriedly and stood up. He was some-

T o B u i l d a F i r e

69

what frightened. He stamped forcefully until the feeling returned to his
feet. It certainly was cold, was his thought. That man from Sulphur
Creek had spoken the truth when telling how cold it sometimes got in
this country. And he had laughed at him at the time! That showed one
must not be too sure of things. There was no mistake about it, it was
cold. He walked a few steps, stamping his feet and waving his arms,
until reassured by the returning warmth. Then he took some matches
and proceeded to make a fire. In the bushes, the high water had left a
supply of sticks. From here he got wood for his fire. Working carefully
from a small beginning, he soon had a roaring fire.

Bending over the fire, he first melted the ice from his face. With
the protection of the fire’s warmth he ate his lunch. For the moment,
the cold had been forced away. The dog took comfort in the fire, lying
at full length close enough for warmth and far enough away to escape
being burned. When the man had finished eating, he filled his pipe
with tobacco and had a comfortable time with a smoke. Then he pulled
on his mittens, settled his cap firmly about his ears, and started along
the creek trail toward the left.

The dog was sorry to leave and looked toward the fire. This man
did not know cold. Possibly none of his ancestors had known cold, real
cold. But the dog knew and all of its family knew. And it knew that it
was not good to walk outside in such fearful cold. It was the time to lie
in a hole in the snow and to wait for this awful cold to stop. There was
no real bond between the dog and the man. The one was the slave of
the other. The dog made no effort to indicate its fears to the man. It
was not concerned with the well-being of the man. It was for its own
sake that it looked toward the fire. But the man whistled, and spoke to
it with the sound of the whip in his voice. So the dog started walking
close to the man’s heels and followed him along the trail.

The man put more tobacco in his mouth and started a new growth
of yellow ice on his face. Again his moist breath quickly powdered the
hair on his face with white. He looked around him. There did not
seem to be so many pools of water under the snow on the left side of
Henderson Creek, and for half an hour the man saw no signs of any.

J a c k L o n d o n
70

And then it happened. At a place where there were no signs, the man
broke through. It was not deep. He was wet to the knees before he got
out of the water to the firm snow.

He was angry and cursed his luck aloud. He had hoped to get into
camp with the boys at six o’clock, and this would delay him an hour.
Now he would have to build a fire and dry his moccasins and socks.
This was most important at that low temperature. He knew that much.

So he turned aside to the bank, which he climbed. On top, under
several small pine trees, he found some firewood which had been car-
ried there by the high water of last year. There were some sticks, but also
larger branches, and some dry grasses. He threw several large branches
on top of the snow. This served for a foundation and prevented the
young flame from dying in the wet snow. He made a flame by touch-
ing a match to a small piece of tree bark that he took from his pocket.
This burned even better than paper. Placing it on the foundation, he
fed the young flame with pieces of dry grass and with the smallest dry
sticks.

He worked slowly and carefully, realizing his danger. Gradually,
as the flame grew stronger, he increased the size of the sticks with which
he fed it. He sat in the snow, pulling the sticks from the bushes under
the trees and feeding them directly to the flame. He knew he must not
fail. When it is 75 below zero, a man must not fail in his first attempt
to build a fire. This is especially true if his feet are wet. If his feet are
dry, and he fails, he can run along the trail for half a mile to keep his
blood moving. But the blood in wet and freezing feet cannot be kept
moving by running when it is 75 degrees below. No matter how fast he
runs, the wet feet will freeze even harder.

All this the man knew. The old man on Sulphur Creek had told
him about it, and now he was grateful for the advice. Already all feel-
ing had gone from his feet. To build the fire he had been forced to
remove his mittens, and the fingers had quickly become numb. His
pace of four miles an hour had kept his heart pushing the blood to all
parts of his body. But the instant he stopped, the action of the heart
slowed down. He now received the full force of the cold. The blood of

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71

his body drew back from it. The blood was alive, like the dog. Like the
dog, it wanted to hide and seek cover, away from the fearful cold. As
long as he walked four miles an hour, the blood rose to the surface. But
now it sank down into the lowest depths of his body. His feet and
hands were the first to feel its absence. His wet feet froze first. His bare
fingers were numb, although they had not yet begun to freeze. Nose
and face were already freezing, while the skin of all his body became
cold as it lost its blood.

But he was safe. Toes and nose and face would be only touched by
the frost, because the fire was beginning to burn with strength. He was
feeding it with sticks the size of his finger. In another minute he would
be able to feed it with larger branches. Then he could remove his wet
moccasins and socks. While they dried, he could keep his naked feet
warm by the fire, rubbing them first with snow. The fire was a success.
He was safe.

He remembered the advice of the old man on Sulphur Creek, and
smiled. The man had been very serious when he said that no man should
travel alone in that country after 50 below zero. Well, here he was; he
had had the accident; he was alone; and he had saved himself. Those
old men were rather womanish, he thought. All a man must do was to
keep his head, and he was all right. Any man who was a man could
travel alone. But it was surprising, the rapidity with which his face and
nose were freezing. And he had not thought his fingers could lose their
feeling in so short a time. Without feeling they were, because he found
it very difficult to make them move together to grasp a stick. They
seemed far from his body and from him. When he touched a stick, he
had to look to see whether or not he was holding it.

All of which mattered little. There was the fire, promising life
with every dancing flame. He started to untie his moccasins. They were
coated with ice. The thick socks were like iron almost to the knees. The
moccasin’s strings were like ropes of steel. For a moment he pulled
them with his unfeeling fingers. Then, realizing the foolishness of it, he
grasped his knife.

But before he could cut the strings, it happened. It was his own

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72

fault, or instead, his mistake. He should not have built the fire under the
pine tree. He should have built it in an open space. But it had been eas-
ier to pull the sticks from the bushes and drop them directly on the fire.

Now the tree under which he had done this carried a weight of
snow on its branches. No wind had been blowing for weeks and each
branch was heavy with snow. Each time he pulled a stick he shook the
tree slightly. There had been just enough movement to cause the awful
thing to happen. High up in the tree one branch dropped its load of
snow. This fell on the branches beneath. This process continued, spread-
ing through the whole tree. The snow fell without warning upon the
man and the fire, and the fire was dead. Where it had burned was a pile
of fresh snow.

The man was shocked. It was like hearing his own judgment of
death. For a moment he sat and stared at the spot where the fire had
been. Then he grew very calm. Perhaps the old man on Sulphur Creek
was right. If he had a companion on the trail he would be in no danger
now. The companion could have built the fire. Now, he must build the
fire again, and this second time he must not fail. Even if he succeeded,
he would be likely to lose some toes. His feet must be badly frozen by
now, and there would be some time before the second fire was ready.

Such were his thoughts, but he did not sit and think them. He
was busy all the time they were passing through his mind. He made a
new foundation for a fire, this time in the open space, where no tree
would be above it. Next, he gathered dry grasses and tiny sticks. He
could not bring his fingers together to pull them out of the ground, but
he was able to gather them by the handful. In this way he also got
many pieces that were undesirable, but it was the best he could do. He
worked carefully, even collecting an armful of the larger branches to be
used later when the fire gathered strength. And all the while the dog
sat and watched him. There was an anxious look in its eyes, because it
depended upon him as the fire provider, and the fire was slow in coming.

When all was ready, the man reached in his pocket for the sec-
ond piece of tree bark. He knew the bark was there, although he could
not feel it with his fingers. He tried again and again, but he could not

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73

grasp it. And all the time, in his mind, he knew that each instant his
feet were freezing. This thought alarmed him, but he fought against it
and kept calm.

He pulled on his mittens with his teeth, and began swinging his
arms. Then he beat his hands with all his strength against his sides. He
did this while he was sitting down. Then he stood up to do it. All the
while the dog sat in the snow, its tail curled warmly over its feet and
its sharp wolf ears bent forward as it looked at the man. And the man,
as he waved his arms and hands, looked with longing at the creature
that was warm and secure in the covering provided by nature.

After a time, he began to notice some feeling in his beaten fin-
gers. The feeling grew stronger until it became very painful, but the
man welcomed the pain. He pulled the mitten from his right hand and
grasped the tree bark from his pocket. The bare fingers were quickly
numb again. Next, he brought out his pack of matches. But the awful
cold had already driven the life out of his fingers. In his effort to sepa-
rate one match from the others, the whole pack fell in the snow. He
tried to pick it out of the snow, but failed. The dead fingers could nei-
ther touch nor hold.

Now he was very careful. He drove the thought of his freezing
feet, and nose, and face, from his mind. He devoted his whole soul to
picking up the matches. He followed the movement of his fingers with
his eyes, using his sense of sight instead of that of touch. When he saw
his fingers on each side of the pack, he closed them. That is, he willed
to close them, because the fingers did not obey. He put the mitten on
the right hand again, and beat it fiercely against his knee. Then, with
both mittened hands, he lifted up the pack of matches, along with
much snow, to the front of his jacket. But he had gained nothing.

After some struggling he managed to get the pack between his mit-
tened hands. In this manner he carried it to his mouth. The ice broke as
he opened his mouth with a fierce effort. He used his upper teeth to rub
across the pack in order to separate a single match. He succeeded
in getting one, which he dropped on his jacket. His condition was no
better. He could not pick up the match. Then he thought how he might

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74

do it. He picked up the match in his teeth and drew it across his leg.
Twenty times he did this before he succeeded in lighting it. As it flamed
he held it with his teeth to the tree bark. But the burning smell went
up his nose, causing him to cough. The match fell into the snow and
the flame died.

The old man on Sulphur Creek was right, he thought in the
mo ment of controlled despair that followed. After 50 below zero, a man
should travel with a companion. He beat his hands, but failed to pro-
duce any feeling in them. Suddenly he bared both hands, removing the
mittens with his teeth. He caught the whole pack of matches between
his hands. His arm muscles were not frozen and he was able to press the
hands tightly against the matches. Then he drew the whole pack along
his leg. It burst into flame, 70 matches at once!

There was no wind to blow them out. He kept his head to one side
to escape the burning smell, and held the flaming pack to the tree bark.
As he so held it, he noticed some feeling in his hand. His flesh was
burning. He could smell it. The feeling developed into pain. He con-
tinued to endure it. He held the flame of the matches to the bark that
would not light readily because his own burning hands were taking
most of the flame.

Finally, when he could endure no more, he pulled his hands apart.
The flaming matches fell into the snow, but the tree bark was burning.
He began laying dry grasses and the tiniest sticks on the flame. He
could not choose carefully because they must be pieces that could be
lifted between his hands. Small pieces of green grass stayed on the sticks,
and he bit them off as well as he could with his teeth. He treated the
flame carefully. It meant life, and it must not cease.

The blood had left the surface of his body and he now began to
shake from the cold. A large piece of a wet plant fell on the little fire.
He tried to push it out with his fingers. His shaking body made him push
it too far and he scattered the little fire over a wide space. He tried to
push the burning grasses and sticks together again. Even with the strong
effort that he made, his trembling fingers would not obey and the sticks
were hopelessly scattered. Each stick smoked a little and died. The fire

T o B u i l d a F i r e
75

provider had failed. As he looked about him, his eyes noticed the dog
sitting across the ruins of the fire from him. It was making uneasy move-
ments, slightly lifting one foot and then the other.

The sight of the dog put a wild idea into his head. He remembered
the story of the man, caught in a storm, who killed an animal and shel-
tered himself inside the dead body and thus was saved. He would kill
the dog and bury his hands in the warm body until feeling returned to
them. Then he could build another fire.

He spoke to the dog, calling it to him. But in his voice was a
strange note of fear that frightened the animal. It had never known the
man to speak in such a tone before. Something was wrong and it sensed
danger. It knew not what danger, but somewhere in its brain arose a
fear of the man. It flattened its ears at the sound of the man’s voice; its
uneasy movements and the liftings of its feet became more noticeable.
But it would not come to the man. He got down on his hands and knees
and went toward the dog. But this unusual position again excited fear
and the animal moved away.

The man sat in the snow for a moment and struggled for calmness.
Then he pulled on his mittens, using his teeth, and then stood on his
feet. He glanced down to assure himself that he was really standing,
because lack of feeling in his feet gave him no relation to the earth.
His position, however, removed the fear from the dog’s mind.

When he commanded the dog with his usual voice, the dog obeyed
and came to him. As it came within his reach, the man lost control.
His arms stretched out to hold the dog and he experienced real surprise
when he discovered that his hands could not grasp. There was neither
bend nor feeling in the fingers. He had forgotten for the moment that
they were frozen and that they were freezing more and more. All this
happened quickly and before the animal could escape, he encircled its
body with his arms. He sat down in the snow, and in this fashion held
the dog, while it barked and struggled.

But it was all he could do: hold its body encircled in his arms and
sit there. He realized that he could not kill the dog. There was no way
to do it. With his frozen hands he could neither draw nor hold his

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76

knife. Nor could he grasp the dog around the throat. He freed it and it
dashed wildly away, still barking. It stopped 40 feet away and observed
him curiously, with ears sharply bent forward.

The man looked down at his hands to locate them and found
them hanging on the ends of his arms. He thought it curious that it was
necessary to use his eyes to discover where his hands were. He began
waving his arms, beating the mittened hands against his sides. He did
this for five minutes. His heart produced enough blood to stop his shak-
ing. But no feeling was created in his hands.

A certain fear of death came upon him. He realized that it was
no longer a mere problem of freezing his fingers and toes, or of losing
his hands and feet. Now it was a problem of life and death with the cir-
cumstances against him. The fear made him lose control of himself and
he turned and ran along the creek bed on the old trail. The dog joined
him and followed closely behind. The man ran blindly in fear such as
he had never known in his life. Slowly, as he struggled through the
snow, he began to see things again—the banks of the creek, the bare
trees, and the sky.

The running made him feel better. He did not shake any more.
Maybe, if he continued to run, his feet would stop freezing. Maybe if he
ran far enough, he would find the camp and the boys. Without doubt,
he would lose some fingers and toes and some of his face. But the boys
would take care of him and save the rest of him when he got there.
And at the same time, there was another thought in his mind that said
he would never get to the camp and the boys. It told him that it was
too many miles away, that the freezing had too great a start and that
he would soon be dead. He pushed this thought to the back of his mind
and refused to consider it. Sometimes it came forward and demanded
to be heard. But he pushed it away and tried to think of other things.

It seemed strange to him that he could run on feet so frozen that
he could not feel them when they struck the earth and took the weight
of his body. He seemed to be flying along above the surface and to have
no connection with the earth.

His idea of running until he arrived at the camp and the boys pre-

T o B u i l d a F i r e

77

sented one problem: he lacked the endurance. Several times he caught
himself as he was falling. Finally, he dropped to the ground, unable to
stop his fall. When he tried to rise, he failed. He must sit and rest, he
decided. Next time he would merely walk and keep going.

As he sat and regained his breath, he noted that he was feeling
warm and comfortable. He was not shaking, and it even seemed that a
warm glow had come to his body. And yet, when he touched his nose
or face, there was no feeling. Running would not bring life to them. Nor
would it help his hands and feet. Then the thought came to him that
the frozen portions of his body must be increasing. He tried to keep this
thought out of his mind and to forget it. He knew that such thoughts
caused a feeling of fright in him and he was afraid of such feelings. But
the thought returned and continued, until he could picture his body
totally frozen. This was too much, and again he ran wildly along the
trail. Once he slowed to a walk, but the thought that the freezing of
his body was increasing made him run again.

And all the time the dog ran with him, at his heels. When he fell
a second time, the dog curled its tail over its feet and sat in front of
him, facing him, curiously eager. The warmth and security of the ani-
mal angered him. He cursed it until it flattened its ears. This time the
shaking because of the cold began more quickly. He was losing his bat-
tle with the frost. It was moving into his body from all sides. This
thought drove him forward. But he ran no more than 100 feet, when
he fell head first.

It was his last moment of fear. When he had recovered his breath
and his control, he sat and thought about meeting death with dignity.
However, the idea did not come to him in exactly this manner. His idea
was that he had been acting like a fool. He had been running around
like a chicken with its head cut off. He was certain to freeze in his pre-
sent circumstances, and he should accept it calmly. With this newfound
peace of mind came the first sleepiness. A good idea, he thought, to
sleep his way to death. Freezing was not as bad as people thought. There
were many worse ways to die.

He pictured the boys finding his body the next day. Suddenly he

J a c k L o n d o n

78

saw himself with them, coming along the trail and looking for himself.
And, still with them, he came around a turn in the trail and found him-
self lying in the snow. He did not belong with himself any more. Even
then he was outside of himself, standing with the boys and looking at
himself in the snow. It certainly was cold, was his thought. When he
returned to the United States he could tell the folks what real cold was.

His mind went from this to the thought of the old man of Sulphur
Creek. He could see him quite clearly, warm and comfortable, and smok-
ing a pipe.

“You were right, old fellow. You were right,” he murmured to the
old man of Sulphur Creek.

Then the man dropped into what seemed to him the most com-
fortable and satisfying sleep he had ever known. The dog sat facing him
and waiting. The brief day ended in a long evening. There were no signs
of a fire to be made. Never in the dog’s experience had it known a man
to sit like that in the snow and make no fire. As the evening grew
darker, its eager longing for the fire mastered it. With much lifting of
its feet, it cried softly. Then it flattened its ears, expecting the man’s
curse. But the man remained silent. Later, the dog howled loudly. And
still later it moved close to the man and caught the smell of death.
This made the animal back away. A little longer it delayed, howling
under the stars that leaped and danced and shone brightly in the cold
sky. Then it turned and ran along the trail toward the camp it knew,
where there were the other food providers and fire providers.

T o B u i l d a F i r e

79

• To_Build_a_Fire_Ch1_064-079_Part1
• To_Build_a_Fire_Ch1_064-079_Part2
• To_Build_a_Fire_Ch1_064-079_Part3
• To_Build_a_Fire_Ch1_064-079_Part4
• To_Build_a_Fire_Ch1_064-079_Part5
• To_Build_a_Fire_Ch1_064-079_Part6
• To_Build_a_Fire_Ch1_064-079_Part7
• To_Build_a_Fire_Ch1_064-079_Part8
• To_Build_a_Fire_Ch1_064-079_Part9
• To_Build_a_Fire_Ch1_064-079_Part10
• To_Build_a_Fire_Ch1_064-079_Part11
• To_Build_a_Fire_Ch1_064-079_Part12
• To_Build_a_Fire_Ch1_064-079_Part13
• To_Build_a_Fire_Ch1_064-079_Part14
• To_Build_a_Fire_Ch1_064-079_Part15
• To_Build_a_Fire_Ch1_064-079_Part16