He had never barked
in his life, and he could not now learn to bark a welcome when his god
approached. He was never in the way, never extravagant nor foolish in
the expression of his love. He never ran to meet his god. He waited at
a distance; but he always waited, was always there. His love partook of
the nature of worship, dumb, inarticulate, a silent adoration. Only by
the steady regard of his eyes did he express his love, and by the
unceasing following with his eyes of his god's every movement. Also, at
times, when his god looked at him and spoke to him, he betrayed an
awkward self-consciousness, caused by the struggle of his love to express
itself and his physical inability to express it.

He learned to adjust himself in many ways to his new mode of life. It
was borne in upon him that he must let his master's dogs alone. Yet his
dominant nature asserted itself, and he had first to thrash them into an
acknowledgment of his superiority and leadership. This accomplished, he
had little trouble with them. They gave trail to him when he came and
went or walked among them, and when he asserted his will they obeyed.

In the same way, he came to tolerate Matt--as a possession of his master.
His master rarely fed him. Matt did that, it was his business; yet White
Fang divined that it was his master's food he ate and that it was his
master who thus fed him vicariously. Matt it was who tried to put him
into the harness and make him haul sled with the other dogs. But Matt
failed. It was not until Weedon Scott put the harness on White Fang and
worked him, that he understood. He took it as his master's will that
Matt should drive him and work him just as he drove and worked his
master's other dogs.

Different from the Mackenzie toboggans were the Klondike sleds with
runners under them. And different was the method of driving the dogs.
There was no fan-formation of the team. The dogs worked in single file,
one behind another, hauling on double traces. And here, in the Klondike,
the leader was indeed the leader. The wisest as well as strongest dog
was the leader, and the team obeyed him and feared him. That White Fang
should quickly gain this post was inevitable. He could not be satisfied
with less, as Matt learned after much inconvenience and trouble. White
Fang picked out the post for himself, and Matt backed his judgment with
strong language after the experiment had been tried. But, though he
worked in