CHAPTER ONE

The Journey

The weather was extremely cold. The river was frozen. Snow covered the trees. The place was silent and sad. A group of dogs were running on the frozen river. It was so cold that when the dogs breathed, their breath froze. The dogs pulled a large wooden sled. There was a very large wooden box on the sled, as well as some camping things like blankets and pots.

Two men were with the dogs. One walked in front of the dogs, and the other walked behind the sled. Inside the box, there was a third man. This man, however, was dead. The two men were wearing very thick clothes to keep their bodies warm. Their breath also froze as they breathed.

They did not talk to each other as they traveled. The sky got dark. Suddenly, the men heard a sound from somewhere far away. It sounded like an animal cry. The two men then looked at each other and nodded. They heard the cry again. It was coming from behind them. Then they heard a third cry, somewhere to the left of the second cry.

"They are following us," said the man in front of the sled.

"They are looking for food. They are hungry," said the other man.

The men soon stopped the sled and the dogs. They made a camp for the night. They sat next to a fire with their sled dogs. "The dogs are staying very close to the camp, Henry," said the man named Bill.

The other man, Henry, made coffee in a pot on top of the fire. When he sat by Bill to begin eating, he said, "They know that they are safe with us. Besides, they would rather eat than be eaten."

Bill said, "Henry, did you notice that the dogs were very anxious when I fed them tonight?"

"Yes," said Henry, "They did seem more upset than usual."

"How many dogs do we have, Henry?" said Bill.

"Six," said Henry.

"Well, Henry, I also know that we have six dogs. I took six fish out of the bag to give to the dogs. I gave one fish to each dog, but when I got to the last dog, I was missing one fish. I think there was another dog, a seventh dog, that ate one of the fish," said Bill.

Henry looked at the dogs. "There's only six," he said.

"I saw the seventh dog run away," said Bilk "I know I saw seven."

"I think you are starting to see things that are not real," said Henry.

"I also thought that," answered Bill, "But I looked in the snow and I saw its footprints."

Henry fearfully looked at Bill. "Do you think it was one of them?" he asked. Suddenly, they heard another cry.

Bill nodded his head. They could now hear more cries. The dogs were scared, and they stayed very close together and stood near the fire.

Bill pointed to the large box on the sled and said, "He is much luckier than us. If you or I died, no one would care.

"We don't have rich families," said Henry. "They couldn't pay for a long-distance funeral like this."

"I don't understand how a rich young man like this guy would want to leave his comfortable home and come to a horrible place like this," said Bill.

The dogs were now very afraid. Bill said, "We only have three bullets left in our gun. Also, the weather has been extremely cold. It's been fifty degrees below zero (negative 45 degrees Celsius) for two weeks. I wish that this journey was over now."

The men went to sleep. The dogs began to make very loud noises, and Bill woke up. He saw seven dogs again. In the morning, Bill asked Henry, "How many dogs do we have?"

"Six," Henry answered.

"Wrong," said Bill, "We have five now. Fatty is not here. He always was a stupid dog."

"He is stupid," said Henry, "But I don't think he'd want to kill himself. Why did he run away? The other dogs won't run away."

(end of section)