CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

The Wolf of Sierra Vista

White Fang was getting used to his new home. It was an interesting place. It even had a name. It was called "Sierra Vista". Weeden Scott's father, Judge Scott, owned the house and the land around it. After a few days, White Fang had no more trouble with the other dogs. The dogs understood that White Fang was going to live with them at Sierra Vista.

Dick (the hound) even tried to be friends with White Fang. However, because White Fang never had any friends, this didn't happen. He did not pay attention to Dick or Collie. Whenever White Fang saw them coming to him, he would walk away.

White Fang had many things to learn about living at Sierra Vista. He had to learn about Weeden Scott's family. There were many new people to know. The first people to know were Weeden Scott's parents: Judge Scott and his wife. Then, there were Weeden Scott's sisters, his wife, and his two young children. The children were four and six years old. Because they were related to his master, White Fang accepted these people and wanted to protect them.

It was especially difficult to accept the children. He had always hated children. He never trusted them. When the children first came to him, he growled. However, after Weeden Scott shouted at him, he was quiet. He let the children touch him. After time, he began to like the two children. When they came to him, he was very pleased. White Fang also learned to like Judge Scott. White Fang liked watching him read the newspaper every day.

White Fang also learned many things about the land outside of the house. He knew that Judge Scott's land was huge, but did not know where it stopped being Judge Scott's land. After leaving Judge Scott's land a few times, he learned which land was his and which was another man's.

Another lesson White Fang had to learn was to accept other animals. In the wild, White Fang killed and ate other animals. In Sierra Vista, however, there were many other animals like chickens and sheep. The Scott family raised these animals to eat. One day, White Fang saw a chicken walking in the yard. The chicken had escaped from the chicken cage. White Fang killed and ate the chicken. He did not know that it was a mistake. Later that day, he found another chicken walking in the yard. A man working on the farm saw White Fang preparing to attack the chicken. He angrily shouted at White Fang. Then, the man took a stick and tried to hit White Fang with the stick. White Fang was angry. He forgot the chicken and ran to the man. The man cried, "My God!", and tried to run away. White Fang only bit the man's arm. He did not seriously hurt the man, but the man was very frightened.

When Weeden Scott heard what had happened, he said, "The wolf will learn. I will teach him not to kill the chickens."

That night, White Fang killed more chickens. In the morning, Weeden Scott found White Fang eating the dead chickens. He wanted to teach White Fang, so he shouted at White Fang in a frightening voice. He forced White Fang to look at the chickens as he shouted. White Fang now understood. He knew that he could never kill another chicken.

When Weeden Scott told his father about the lesson, Judge Scott did not believe it. "He will keep killing the chickens," Judge Scott said.

Weeden Scott did not agree. He challenged his father. "I'll put White Fang in the chicken cage for the entire afternoon. He will not kill any chickens. You'll see," he said.

That afternoon, Weeden Scott put White Fang in the chicken cage with forty chickens. He did not kill a single chicken. In fact, he did not even pay attention to the chickens. For the entire afternoon, he just laid on the ground and relaxed The family was very impressed Judge Scott said to White Fang, "You are smarter than I thought!"

After learning his lessons at Sierra Vista, White Fang had one last problem. Every time he went into town with his master, three dogs would run after him and try to attack him. Because he wanted to be a good dog, he did not harm the dogs. One day, the owner of the dogs told the dogs to attack White Fang. When Weeden Scott saw this, he was angry. He stopped the carriage. Then, he said to White Fang, "Go get them!"

Within minutes, White Fang had attacked and killed the dogs. After this fight, White Fang was famous in the town. Other people's dogs no longer tried to attack him.

(end of section)