The Sun-Dog Trail ::

By Jack London from the December 1905 issue of Harper's Magazine:

"Sitka Charley smoked his pipe and gazed thoughtfully at the newspaper illustration on the wall. For half an hour he had been steadily regarding it, and for half an hour I had been slyly watching him. Something was going on in that mind of his, and, whatever it was, I knew it was well worth knowing. He had lived life and seen seen things, and performed that prodigy of prodigies, namely, the turning of his back upon his own people, and, in so far as it was possible for an Indian, becoming a white man even in his mental processes. As he phrased it himself, he had come into the warm, sat among us, by our own fires, and become one of us.

We had struck this deserted cabin after a hard day on the trail. The dogs had been fed, the supper dishes washed, the bed made, and we were now enjoying that most delicious hour that comes each day, on the Alaskan trail, when nothing intervenes between the tired body and bed save the smoking of the evening pipe.

'well?' I finally broke the silence.

He took the pipe from his mouth and said, simply, 'I do not understand.'

He smoked on again and again removed the pipe, using it to the point at the illustration.

'That picture--what does it mean? I do not understand.'"