The Call of the Wild (Easy English)

Buck did not read the newspapers. If he had, he would have known that trouble was coming — not only for him, but for every strong dog with warm, long hair, from Puget Sound to San Diego. In 1897, men had found gold in the Arctic, in the Klondike region of the Yukon. Thousands of men were rushing north. And in the North, where there were no roads and no trains, men needed dogs. Big, strong dogs, with thick coats to protect them from the frost.

Buck lived in a big house in the sunny Santa Clara Valley in California. It belonged to Judge Miller. Buck was four years old. His father had been a huge St. Bernard, and his mother a Scottish shepherd dog. He weighed sixty-four kilos. He was not a house dog or a guard dog. He was king of the whole place. He swam with the Judge's sons, he walked with the Judge's daughters, and on winter nights he lay at the Judge's feet in front of the fire.

But one of the gardener's helpers, a man called Manuel, had a problem. He loved to gamble, and he had no money. One evening, while the Judge was at a meeting, Manuel took Buck for a walk. Buck trusted him. They walked to a small railway station. There, Manuel gave Buck to a stranger, and the stranger gave Manuel money.

Manuel put a rope around Buck's neck. Buck did not mind at first. He had learned to trust men he knew. But when the stranger pulled the rope hard, Buck jumped at him in anger. The man was quick. He tightened the rope around Buck's neck until Buck could not breathe. Buck fought wildly, his tongue out of his mouth, until everything went black.