April 22, 2025 • 41 mins
Ron reads Jack London's classic short story "To Build a Fire," immersing listeners in the harrowing tale of a man who dangerously underestimates the deadly cold of the Yukon wilderness.
• A man travels alone in the Yukon at 75 degrees below zero despite warnings
• His lack of imagination prevents him from truly understanding the danger
• The man's dog instinctively senses the peril of traveling in such extreme cold
• After wetting his feet, he faces a life-or-death struggle to build a fire
• When his fire-building attempts fail, the man confronts his mortality
• His final acceptance of death comes with an almost dreamlike peacefulness
• The dog ultimately abandons him to seek the safety of camp
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Are you tired?
You will be.
You're listening to Ron Reads.
Ron Reads Boring Books.
Today we're reading To Build aFire by Jack London, and before
we read, I want to thank you forlistening.
(00:28):
We have surpassed 50 downloads.
I don't know how manysubscribers or how many people
accidentally started listeningto Ron Reeds, but I am
(00:54):
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Please like these podcasts andshare them and subscribe.
Now let's read To Build a Fireby Jack London.
Day had dawned cold and graywhen the man turned aside from
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the main Yukon Trail.
He climbed the high earth bankwhere a little traveled trail
led east through the pine forest.
It was a high bank and hepaused to breathe at the top.
He excused the act to himselfby looking at his watch.
It was nine o'clock in themorning.
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There was no sun or promise ofsun.
Although there was not a cloudin the sky.
It was a clear day.
However, there seemed to be anindescribable darkness over the
face of things.
That was because the sun wasabsent from the sky.
This fact did not worry the man.
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He was not alarmed by the lackof sun.
It had been days since he hadseen the sun.
The man looked along the way hehad come.
The Yukon lay a mile wide andhidden under three feet of ice.
On top of this ice were as manyfeet of snow.
All was pure white.
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North and south, as far as Icould see, it was unbroken white
.
The one thing that relieved thewhiteness was a thin dark line
that curved from thepine-covered island to the south
.
It curved into the north whereit had disappeared behind
another pine-covered island.
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This dark line was the trail,the main trail.
It led south 500 miles to theChilkoot Pass and salt water.
It led north 75 miles to Dawsonand still further on to the
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north, a thousand miles to NewLotto and finally to St Michael
on the Bering Sea.
A thousand miles and a halfthousand more.
But all this, the distant trail,no sun in the sky, the great
cold and the strangeness of itall had no effect on the man.
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It was not because he was longfamiliar with it.
He was a newcomer in the landand this was his first winter.
The trouble with him was thathe was not able to imagine.
He was quick and ready in thethings of life.
He was quick and ready in thethings of life, but only in the
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things and not in their meanings.
Fifty degrees below zero meanteighty degrees of frost.
Such facts told him that it wascold and uncomfortable, and
that was all.
It did not lead him to considerhis weakness as a creature
affected by temperature, nor didhe think about man's general
weakness, able to live onlywithin narrow limits of heat and
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cold.
From there, it did not lead himto thoughts of heaven and the
meaning of man's life.
Fifty degrees below zero meanta bite of frost that hurt and
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that must be guarded against bythe use of mittens, ear
coverings, warm moccasins andthick socks.
That it should be moreimportant than that was a
thought that never entered hishead.
As he turned to go, he forcedsome water from his mouth as an
experiment.
There was a sudden noise thatsurprised him.
He tried it again and again inthe air.
Before they could fall to thesnow.
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The drops of water became icethat broke with a noise.
He knew that at 50 below zero,water from the mouth made a
noise when it hit the snow, butthis had done that in the air.
Undoubtedly it was colder than50 below, but exactly how much
colder he did not know.
But the temperature did notmatter.
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He was headed for the old campon Henderson Creek where the
boys were already.
They had come across themountain from the Indian Creek
country.
He had taken the long trail tolook at the possibility of
floating logs from the islandsin the Yukon down the river when
the ice melted.
He would be in camp by sixo'clock that evening.
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It would be a little after dark, but the boys would be in camp
by six o'clock that evening.
It would be a little after dark, but the boys would be there.
A fire would be burning and ahot supper would be ready.
As he thought of lunch, hepressed his hand against the
package under his jacket it wasalso under his shirt wrapped in
a handkerchief and lying forwarmth against the naked skin.
Otherwise the bread wouldfreeze.
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He smiled contentedly tohimself as he thought of those
pieces of bread, each of whichenclosed a generous portion of
cooked meat.
He plunged among the big pinetrees.
The trail was not well markedhere.
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Several inches of snow hadfallen since the last sled had
passed.
He was glad he was without asled.
Actually, he carried nothingbut the lunch wrapped in the
handkerchief.
He was surprised, however, atthe cold, wrapped in the
handkerchief.
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He was surprised, however, atthe cold.
It certainly was cold hedecided.
As he rubbed his nose and facewith his mittened hand.
He had a good growth of hair onhis face but that did not
protect his nose nor the upperpart of his face from the frosty
air.
Following at the man's heels wasa big native dog.
It was a wolf dog, gray-coatedand not noticeably different
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from its brother, the wild wolf.
The animal was worried by thegreat cold.
It knew that this was no timefor traveling.
Its own feeling was closer tothe truth than the man's
judgment.
In reality it was not merelycolder than 50 below.
It was colder than 60 below,than 70 below.
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It was 75 below zero, becausethe freezing point is 32 above
zero.
That meant that there were 170degrees of frost.
The dog did not know anythingabout temperatures.
Possibly in its brain there wasno understanding of a condition
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of very cold, such as was inthe man's brain.
But the animal sensed thedanger.
Its fear made it questioneagerly every movement of the
man, as if expecting him to gointo camp or to seek shelter
somewhere and build a fire.
Expecting him to go into campor to seek shelter somewhere and
build a fire.
The dog had learned about fireand it wanted fire.
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Otherwise it would dig itselfinto the snow and find shelter
from the cold air.
The frozen moistness of itsbreathing had settled on its fur
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in a fine powder of frost.
The hair on the man's face inhis mouth.
The ice held his lips sotightly together that he could
not empty the juice from hismouth.
The result was a long piece ofyellow ice hanging from his lips
.
If he fell down it would breaklike glass into many pieces.
He expected the ice formed bythe tobacco juice, having been
out twice before when it wasvery cold.
But it had not been so cold asthis, he knew.
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He continued through the levelforest for several miles.
Then he went down a bank intothe frozen path of a small
stream.
This was Henderson Creek and heknew he was ten miles from
where the stream divided.
He looked at his watch it was10 o'clock.
He was traveling at the rate of4 miles an hour.
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Thus he figured he would arrivewhere the stream divided at
half past 12.
He decided he would eat hislunch.
When he arrived there, the dogfollowed again at his heels,
with its tail hanging low as theman started to walk along the
frozen stream.
The old sled trail could beseen, but a dozen inches of snow
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covered the marks of the lastsleds.
In a month the man had traveledup or down that silent creek.
The man went steadily ahead.
He was not much of a thinker Atthat moment.
He had nothing to think aboutexcept that he would eat lunch
at the Stream's Divide and thatat six o'clock he would be in
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camp with the boys.
There was nobody to talk to andhad there been, speech would
not have been possible becauseof the ice around his mouth.
Once in a while, the thoughtrepeated itself that it was very
cold and that he had neverexperienced such cold.
As he walked along, he rubbedhis face and nose with the back
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of his mittened hand.
He did this without thinking,frequently changing hands, but
with all his rubbing, theinstant he stopped, his face and
nose became numb.
His face would surely be frozen.
He knew that and he was sorrythat he had not worn the sort of
nose guard Bud wore when it wascold.
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Such a guard passed across thenose and covered the entire face
.
But it did not matter much.
He decided what was?
A little frost, a bit painful,that was all.
It was never serious, empty asthe man's mind was of thoughts.
He was most observant.
He noticed the changes in thecreek, the curves and the bends,
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and always he noted where heplaced his feet.
Curves and the bends, andalways he noted where he placed
his feet.
Once, coming around a bend, hemoved suddenly to the side like
a frightened horse.
He curved away from the placewhere he had been walking and
retraced his steps several feetalong the trail.
He knew the creek was frozen tothe bottom.
No creek could contain water inthat winter.
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But he knew also that there werestreams of water that came out
from the hillsides and ran alongunder the snow on top and on
top of the ice of the creek.
He knew that even in thecoldest weather these streams
were never frozen and he alsoknew their danger.
They hid pools of water underthe snow that might be three
inches deep or three feet.
Sometimes a skin of ice half aninch thick covered them and in
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turn was covered by the snow.
Sometimes there was both waterand thin ice, and when a man
broke through he could get verywet.
That was why he had jumped away, so suddenly he had felt the
ice move under his feet.
That was why he had jumped awayso suddenly he had felt the ice
move under his feet.
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He had also heard the noise ofthe snow-covered ice skin
breaking, and to get his feetwet in such a temperature meant
trouble and danger.
At the very least it meantdelay, because he would be
forced to stop and build a fire.
Only under his protection couldhe bear his feet.
While he dried his socks andmoccasins, he stood and studied
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the creek bottom and its banks.
He decided that the flowingstream of water came from the
right side.
He thought a while rubbing hisnose and face.
Then he walked to the left.
He stepped carefully and testedthe ice at each step.
Once away from the danger, hecontinued at his four-mile pace.
During the next two hours hecame to several similar dangers.
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Usually the snow above thepools had a sunken appearance.
However, once again he camenear to falling through the ice.
Once sensing danger, he madethe dog go ahead.
The dog did not want to go.
It hesitated until the manpushed it forward.
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Then it went quickly across thewhite, unbroken surface.
Suddenly it fell through theice but climbed out on the other
side, which was firm.
It had wet its feet and legs.
Almost immediately the water onthem turned to ice.
The dog made quick efforts toget the ice off its legs.
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Then it lay down in the snowand it began to bite out the ice
that had formed between thetoes.
The animal knew enough to dothis.
To permit the eyes to remainwould mean sore feet.
It did not know this.
It merely obeyed the commandsthat arose from the deepest part
of its being.
But the man knew these things.
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Having learned them fromexperience, he removed the
mitten from his right hand andhelped the dog tear out the
pieces of ice.
He did not bare his fingersmore than a minute and was
surprised to find that they werenumb.
It certainly was cold.
He pulled on the mitten quicklyand beat the hand across his
breast.
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At twelve o'clock.
The day was at its brightest,yet the sun did not appear in
the sky was at its brightest,yet the sun did not appear in
the sky.
At half-past twelve on theminute he arrived at the divide
of the creek.
He was pleased at his rate ofspeed.
If he continued he wouldcertainly be with the boys by
six o'clock that evening.
He unbuttoned his jacket andshirt and pulled forth his lunch
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.
The action took no more than aquarter of a minute.
Yet in that brief moment thenumbness touched his bare
fingers.
He did not put the mitten on,but instead struck the fingers
against his leg.
Then he sat down on asnow-covered log to eat.
The pain that followed thestriking of his fingers against
his leg ceased so quickly thathe was frightened.
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He had not had time to take abite of his lunch.
He stroked the fingersrepeatedly and returned them to
the mitten.
Then he barred bared the otherhand for the purpose of eating.
He tried to take a mouthful,but the ice around his mouth
prevented him.
Then he knew what was wrong.
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He had forgotten to build afire to warm himself.
He laughed at his ownfoolishness.
As he laughed he noted thenumbness in his bare fingers.
He also noted that the feelingwhich had first come to his toes
when he sat down was alreadypassing away.
He wondered whether the toeswere warm or whether they were
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numb.
He pulled them inside themoccasins and decided that they
were numb.
He pulled the mittenunhurriedly and stood up.
He was somewhat frightened.
He stamped forcefully until thefeeling returned to his feet.
It certainly was cold.
Was his thought that man fromSulphur Creek had spoken the
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truth when telling how cold itsometimes got in this country
and he had laughed at him at thetime.
That showed one must not be toosure of things.
There was no mistake for hisfire.
Working carefully from a smallbeginning, he soon had a roaring
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fire Bending over the fire.
He first melted the ice fromhis face.
With the protection of thefire's warmth he ate his lunch.
For the moment the cold hadbeen forced away.
The dog took comfort in thefire, lying at full length,
close enough for warmth and farenough away to escape being
burned.
When the man had finishedeating, he filled his pipe with
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tobacco and had a comfortabletime with a smoke.
He then pulled on his mittens,settled his cap firmly about his
ears and started along thecreek toward the left.
The dog was sorry to leave andlook toward the fire.
This man did not know cold.
Possibly none of his ancestorshad known cold, real cold.
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But the dog knew and all of itsfamily knew, and it knew that
it was not good to walk outsidein such fearful cold.
It was the time to lie in ahole in the snow and wait for
this awful cold to stop.
There was no real bond betweenthe dog and the man.
The one was the slave of theother.
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The dog made no effort toindicate its fears to the man.
It was not concerned with thewell-being of the man, for it
was for its own sake that itlooked toward the fire.
But the man whistled and spoketo it with the sound of the whip
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in his voice.
So the dog started walkingclose to the man's heels and
followed him along the trail.
The man put more tobacco in hismouth and started a new growth
of yellow ice on his face.
Again.
His moist breath quicklypowdered the hair on his face
with white.
He looked around.
There did not seem to be somany pools of water under the
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snow on the left side ofHenderson Creek and for half an
hour the man saw no signs of any.
Then it happened At a placewhere there were no signs.
The man broke through.
It was not deep.
He was wet to the knees beforehe got out of the water to the
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firm snow.
He was angry and cursed hisluck aloud.
He was angry and cursed hisluck aloud.
He had hoped to get into campwith the boys at six o'clock and
this would delay him an hour.
He would have to build a fireand dry his moccasins and socks.
This was the most important atthat low temperature.
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He knew that much.
So he turned aside to the bank,which he climbed On top.
Under several small pine treeshe found some firewood which had
been carried there by the highwater of last year.
There were some sticks, butalso larger branches and some
dry grasses.
He threw several large brancheson top of the snow.
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This served for a foundationand prevented the young flame
from dying in the wet snow.
He made a flame by touching amatch to a small piece of tree
bark that he took from hispocket.
This burned even better thanpaper.
Placing it on the foundation,he fed the young flame with
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pieces of dry grass and with thesmallest dry sticks.
He worked slowly and carefully,realizing his danger.
Gradually, as the flame grewstronger, he increased the size
of the sticks with which he fedit.
He sat in the snow, pulling thesticks from the bushes under
the trees and feeding themdirectly into the flame.
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He knew he must not fail.
When it is 75 below zero, a manmust not fail in his first
attempt to build a fire.
This is especially true if hisfeet are wet.
If his feet are dry and hefails, he can run along the
trail for half a mile to keephis blood moving.
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But the blood in wet andfreezing feet cannot be kept
moving by running.
When it is 75 degrees below, nomatter how fast he runs, the
wet feet will freeze even harder.
All of this the man knew.
The old man on Sulphur Creekhad told him about it and now he
was grateful for the advice.
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Already, all feeling had gonefrom his feet To build the fire.
He had been forced to removehis mittens and the fingers had
quickly become numb.
His pace of four miles an hourhad kept his heart pushing the
blood to all parts of his body.
But the instant he stopped, theaction of the heart slowed down
.
He now received the full forceof the cold.
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The blood of his body drew backfrom it.
The blood was alive, like thedog.
Like the dog, it wanted to hideand seek cover away from the
fearful cold.
As long as he walked four milesan hour, the blood rose to the
surface, but now it sank downinto the lowest depths of his
body.
His feet and hands were thefirst to feel its absence.
His wet feet froze first.
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His bare fingers were numb,although they had not yet begun
to freeze.
Nose and face were alreadyfreezing, while the skin of all
his body became cold as it lostits blood.
But he was safe.
Toes and nose and face wouldonly be touched by the frost
because the fire was beginningto burn with strength.
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He was feeding it with sticksthe size of his finger.
In another minute he would beable to feed it with larger
branches.
Then he could remove his wetmoccasins and socks While they
dried.
He could keep his naked feetwarm by the fire, rubbing them
first with snow.
The fire was a success.
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He was safe.
He remembered the advice of theold man on Sulphur Creek and
smiled.
The advice of the old man onSulphur Creek and smiled.
The man had been very seriouswhen he said that no man should
travel alone in that countryafter 50 below zero.
Well, here he was.
He had had the accident, he wasalone and he had saved himself.
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Those old men were ratherwomanish.
He thought All a man must dowas to keep his head and he was
all right.
Any man who was a man couldtravel alone.
But it was surprising therapidity with which his face and
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nose were freezing and he hadnot thought his fingers could
lose their feeling in so short atime.
Without feeling they were,because he found it very
difficult to make them movetogether to grasp a stick.
They seemed far from his bodyand from him.
When he touched a stick, he hadto look to see whether or not
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he was holding it.
All of which mattered little.
He was holding it.
All of which mattered little.
There was the fire, promisinglife.
With every dancing flame, hestarted to untie his moccasins.
They were coated with ice.
The thick socks were like iron,almost to the knees.
He pulled the moccasin.
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Strings were like ropes ofsteel.
For a moment he pulled themwith his unfeeling fingers.
Then, realizing the foolishnessof it, he grasped his knife.
But before he could cut thestrings, it happened.
It was his own fault or insteadhis mistake.
He should not have built thefire under the pine tree.
He should have built it in theopen space, but it had been
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easier to pull the sticks fromthe bushes and drop them
directly on the fire.
Now, the tree under which hehad done this carried a weight
of snow on its branches.
No wind had been blowing forweeks and each branch was heavy
with snow.
Each time he pulled a stick, heshook the tree slightly.
There had been just enoughmovement to cause the awful
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thing to happen.
High up in the tree, one branchdropped its load of snow.
This fell on the branchesbeneath.
This process continued,spreading through the whole tree
.
The snow fell without warningupon the man in the fire, and
the fire was dead.
Where it had burned was a pileof fresh snow.
The man was shocked.
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It was like hearing his ownjudgment of death.
For a moment he sat and staredat the spot where the fire had
been.
Then he grew very calm.
Perhaps the old man on SulphurCreek was right.
If he had a companion on thetrail he would be in no danger
now.
The companion could have builtthe fire.
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Now he must build the fire again, and this second time he must
not fail.
Even if he succeeded, he wouldbe likely to lose some toes.
His feet must be badly frozenby now and there would be some
time before the second fire wasready.
Such were his thoughts.
But he did not sink and thinkthem, sit and think them.
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He was busy all the time.
They were passing through hismind.
He made a new foundation for afire, this time in an open space
where no tree would be above it.
Next, he gathered dry grassesand tiny sticks.
He could not bring his fingerstogether to pull them out of the
ground, but was able to gatherthem by the handful.
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In this way he also got manypieces that were undesirable,
but it was the best he could do.
He worked carefully, evencollecting an armful of the
larger branches to be used laterwhen the fire gathered strength
.
And all the while the dog satand watched him.
There was an anxious look inhis eyes because it depended
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upon him as the fire provider,and the fire was slow in coming.
When all was ready, the manreached in his pocket for the
second piece of tree bark.
He knew the bark was there,although he could not feel it
with his fingers.
He tried again and again, buthe could not grasp it, and all
the time in his mind he knewthat each instant his feet were
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freezing.
This thought alarmed him, buthe fought against it and kept
calm.
He pulled on his mittens withhis teeth and began swinging his
arms.
Then he beat his hands with allhis strength against his sides.
He did this while he wassitting down.
He stood up to do it.
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All the while the dog sat inthe snow.
Its tail curled warmly over itsfeet and its sharp wolf ears
bent forward as it looked at theman, ears bent forward as it
looked at the man.
And the man, as he waved hisarms and hands, looked with
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longing at the creature that waswarm and secure in the covering
provided by nature.
After a time he began to noticesome feeling in his beaten
fingers.
The feeling grew stronger untilit became very painful.
But the man welcomed the pain.
He pulled the mitten from hisright hand and grasped the tree
bark from his pocket.
The fingers were quickly numbagain.
Next he brought out his pack ofmatches, but the awful cold had
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already driven the life out ofhis fingers.
In his effort to separate onematch from the others, the whole
pack fell in the snow.
He tried to pick it out of thesnow but failed.
The dead fingers could neithertouch nor hold.
Now he was very careful.
He drove the thought of hisfreezing feet and nose and face
from his mind.
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He devoted his whole soul topicking up the matches.
He followed the movement of hisfingers with his eyes, using
his sense of sight instead ofthat of touch.
When he saw his fingers on eachside of the pack, he closed
them, that is, he willed toclose them.
Because his fingers did notobey, he put the mitten on the
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right hand and beat it fiercelyagainst his knee.
Then, with both mittened hands,he lifted up the pack of matches
, along with much snow to thefront of his jacket.
But he had gained nothing.
After some struggling, hemanaged to get the pack between
his mittened hands.
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In this manner, he carried itto his mouth.
The eyes broke as he opened hismouth.
With a fierce effort, he usedhis upper teeth to rub across
the pack in order to separate asingle match.
He succeeded in getting one,which he dropped on his jacket.
His condition was no better.
He could not pick up the match.
Then he thought how he might doit.
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He picked up the match with histeeth and drew it across his
leg.
Twenty times he did this beforehe succeeded in lighting it.
As it flamed, he held it withhis teeth to the tree bark, but
the burning smell went up hisnose causing him to cough.
The match fell into the snowand the flame died.
The old man on Sulphur Creek wasright.
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He thought in the moment ofcontrolled despair that followed
After fifty below, a man shouldtravel with a companion.
He beat his hands but failed toproduce any feeling in them.
Suddenly he bared both hands.
Removing the mittens with histeeth, he caught the whole pack
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of matches between his hands.
Moving the mittens with histeeth, he caught the whole pack
of matches between his hands.
His arm muscles were not frozenand he was able to press the
hands tightly against thematches.
Then he drew the whole packalong his leg and burst into
flames, seventy matches at once.
There was no wind to blow himout.
He kept his head to one side toescape the burning smell and
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held the flaming pack to thetree bark.
As he so held it, he noticedsome feeling in his hand.
His flesh was burning.
He could smell it.
The feeling developed into pain.
He continued to endure it.
He held the flame of matches tothe bark that would not light
readily because his own burninghands were taking most of the
flame.
His own burning hands weretaking most of the flame.
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Finally, he could endure it nomore.
He pulled his hands apart.
The flaming matches fell intothe snow, but the tree bark was
burning.
He began laying dry grasses andthe tiniest sticks on the flame.
He could not choose carefullybecause they must be pieces that
could be lifted between hishands.
Small pieces of green grassstayed on the sticks and he bit
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them off as well as he couldwith his teeth.
He treated the flame carefully.
It meant life and it must notcease.
The blood had left the surfaceof his body and he now began to
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shake from the cold.
A large piece of wet plant fellon the little fire.
He tried to push it out withhis fingers.
His shaking body made him pushit too far and he scattered the
little fire over a wide space.
He tried to push the burninggrasses and sticks together
again.
Even with the strong effortthat he made, his trembling
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fingers would not obey and thesticks were hopelessly scattered
.
Each stick smoked a little anddied.
The fire provider had failed.
As he looked about him, his eyesnoticed the dog sitting across
the ruins of the fire.
From him, it was making uneasymovements, slightly lifting one
foot than the other.
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The sight of the dog put a wildidea in his head.
He remembered the story of theman caught in a storm who killed
an animal and sheltered himselfinside the dead body and thus
was saved.
He would kill the dog and buryhis hands in the warm body until
feeling returned to them.
Then he could build anotherfire.
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He spoke to the dog, calling itto him, but in his voice was a
strange note of fear thatfrightened the animal.
It had never known the man tospeak in such a tone before.
Something was wrong and itsensed danger.
It knew not what danger, butsomewhere in its brain arose a
(33:13):
fear of the man.
It flattened its ears at thesound of the man's voice.
Its uneasy movements and theliftings of its feet became more
noticeable, but it would notcome to the man.
He got down on his hands andknees and went toward the dog.
But this unusual position againexcited fear and the animal
moved away.
The man sat in the snow for amoment and struggled for
(33:36):
calmness.
Then he pulled on his mittensusing his teeth, then stood on
his feet.
He glanced down to assurehimself that he was really
standing, because lack offeeling in his feet gave him no
relation to the earth.
His position, however, removedthe fear from the dog's mind.
When he commanded the dog withhis usual voice, the dog obeyed
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and came to him as it camewithin his reach.
The man lost control.
His arms stretched out to holdthe dog and he experienced real
surprise when he discovered thathis hands could not grasp.
There was neither bend norfeeling in the fingers.
He had forgotten for the momentthat they were frozen and that
they were freezing more and more.
All of this happened quicklyand before the animal could
(34:21):
escape, he encircled its bodywith his arms.
He sat down in the snow and inthis fashion, held the dog while
it barked and struggled.
But it was all he could do holdits body encircled in its arms
and sit there.
He realized that he could notkill the dog.
There was no way to do it.
With his frozen hands he couldneither draw nor hold his knife,
(34:44):
nor could he grasp the dogaround the throat.
He freed it and it dashedwildly away, still barking.
It stopped forty feet away andobserved him curiously, with
ears sharply bent forward.
The man looked down at his handsto locate them and found them
hanging on the ends of his arms.
He thought it curious that itwas necessary to use his eyes to
(35:08):
discover where his hands were.
He began waving his arms,beating the mitten hands against
his sides.
He did this for five minutes.
His heart produced enough bloodto stop his shaking, but no
feeling was created in his hands, a certain fear of death came
upon him.
He realized that it was nolonger a mere problem of
(35:30):
freezing his fingers and toes,nor of losing his hands and feet
.
It was a problem of life anddeath, with the circumstances
against him.
The fear made him lose controlof himself and he turned and ran
along the creek bed on the lowtrail.
The dog joined him and followedclosely behind.
The man ran blindly in fearsuch as he had never known in
(35:55):
his life.
Slowly, as he struggled throughthe snow, he began to see
things again the banks of thecreek, the bare trees, the sky.
The running made him feelbetter.
He did not shake anymore.
Maybe if he continued to run,his feet would stop freezing.
Maybe if he ran far enough hewould find the camp and the boys
.
Without doubt he would losesome fingers and toes and some
(36:18):
of his face, but the boys wouldtake care of him and save the
rest of him.
When he got there At the sametime there was another thought
in his mind that said he wouldnever get to the camp and the
boys.
It told him that it was toomany miles away and that the
freezing had too great a startand that he would soon be dead.
He pushed his thought to theback of his mind and refused to
(36:39):
consider it.
Sometimes it came forward anddemanded to be heard, but he
pushed it away and tried tothink of other things.
It seemed strange to him thathe could run on feet so frozen
that he could not feel them whenthey struck the earth and took
the weight of his body.
He seemed to be flying alongabove the surface and to have no
(37:00):
connection with the earth.
His idea of running until hearrived at the camp and the boys
presented one problem he lackedthe endurance.
Several times he caught himselfas he was falling.
Finally he dropped to theground, unable to stop his fall.
When he tried to rise, hefailed.
He must sit and rest, hedecided.
(37:22):
Next time he would merely walkand keep going.
As he sat and regained hisbreath, he noticed that he was
feeling warm and comfortable.
He was not shaking and it evenseemed that a warm glow had come
into his body.
And yet when he touched hisnose or face, there was no
feeling.
Running would not bring life tothem, nor would it help his
(37:44):
hands and feet.
Then the thought came to himthat frozen portions of his body
must be increasing.
He tried to keep this thoughtout of his mind and forget it.
He knew that such thoughtscaused a feeling of fright in
him and he was afraid of suchfeelings.
He knew that such thoughtscaused a feeling of fright in
him and he was afraid of suchfeelings.
But the thought returned andcontinued until he could picture
(38:04):
his body totally frozen.
This was too much, and again heran wildly along the trail.
Once he slowed to a walk, butthe thought that the freezing of
his body was increasing madehim run again, and all the time
the dog ran with him at hisheels.
When he fell a second time, thedog curled its tail over its
feet and sat in front of him,facing him curiously eager.
(38:27):
The warmth and security of theanimal angered him.
He cursed it until it flattenedits ears.
This time the shaking because ofthe cold began more quickly.
He was losing his battle withthe frost.
It was moving into his bodyfrom all sides.
This thought drove him forward,but he ran no more than 100
(38:49):
feet when he fell headfirst.
It was his last moment of fear.
When he had recovered his breathand his control, he sat and
thought about meeting death withdignity.
However, the idea did not cometo him in exactly this manner.
His idea was that he had beenacting like a fool.
He had been running around likea chicken with his head cut off
(39:11):
.
He was certain to freeze in hispresent circumstances and he
should accept it calmly.
With this newfound peace of mindcame the first sleepiness.
A good idea, he thought, tosleep his way to death.
Freezing was not as bad aspeople thought.
(39:31):
There were many worse ways todie.
He pictured the boys findinghis body the next day.
Suddenly he saw himself withthem, coming along the trail and
looking for himself, and stillwith them.
He came around a turn in thetrail and found himself lying in
the snow.
He did not belong with himselfanymore.
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Even then he was outside ofhimself, standing with the boys
and looking at himself in thesnow.
It certainly was cold, was histhought.
When he returned to the UnitedStates he could tell the folks
what real cold was.
His mind went from this to thethought of the old man of
(40:15):
Sulphur Creek.
He could see him quite clearly,warm and comfortable and
smoking a pop.
You were right, old fellow, youwere right, he murmured to the
old man of Sulphur Creek.
Then the man dropped into whatseemed to him the most
comfortable and satisfying sleephe had ever known.
The dog sat facing him andwaiting.
(40:39):
The brief day ended in a longevening.
There were no signs of a fireto be made.
Never in the dog's experiencehad it known a man to sit like
that in the snow and make nofire.
As the evening grew darker, itseager longing for the fire
mastered it.
With much lifting of its feet.
(40:59):
It cried softly then flattenedits ears, expecting the man's
curse, but the man remainedsilent.
Later the dog howled loudly,and still later it moved close
to the man and caught the smellof death.
This made the animal back awayA little longer.
It delayed howling under thestars that leaped and danced and
(41:22):
shone brightly in the cold.
Then it turned and ran alongthe trail towards the camp.
It knew where there were theother food providers and fire
providers.
This has been a reading of ToBuild a Fire by Jack London.
(41:46):
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Now let's read To Build a Fireby Jack London.
Day had dawned cold and graywhen the man turned aside from
(01:16):
the main Yukon Trail.
He climbed the high earth bankwhere a little traveled trail
led east through the pine forest.
It was a high bank and hepaused to breathe at the top.
He excused the act to himselfby looking at his watch.
It was nine o'clock in themorning.
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There was no sun or promise ofsun.
Although there was not a cloudin the sky.
It was a clear day.
However, there seemed to be anindescribable darkness over the
face of things.
That was because the sun wasabsent from the sky.
This fact did not worry the man.
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He was not alarmed by the lackof sun.
It had been days since he hadseen the sun.
The man looked along the way hehad come.
The Yukon lay a mile wide andhidden under three feet of ice.
On top of this ice were as manyfeet of snow.
All was pure white.
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North and south, as far as Icould see, it was unbroken white
.
The one thing that relieved thewhiteness was a thin dark line
that curved from thepine-covered island to the south
.
It curved into the north whereit had disappeared behind
another pine-covered island.
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This dark line was the trail,the main trail.
It led south 500 miles to theChilkoot Pass and salt water.
It led north 75 miles to Dawsonand still further on to the
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north, a thousand miles to NewLotto and finally to St Michael
on the Bering Sea.
A thousand miles and a halfthousand more.
But all this, the distant trail,no sun in the sky, the great
cold and the strangeness of itall had no effect on the man.
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It was not because he was longfamiliar with it.
He was a newcomer in the landand this was his first winter.
The trouble with him was thathe was not able to imagine.
He was quick and ready in thethings of life.
He was quick and ready in thethings of life, but only in the
(03:50):
things and not in their meanings.
Fifty degrees below zero meanteighty degrees of frost.
Such facts told him that it wascold and uncomfortable, and
that was all.
It did not lead him to considerhis weakness as a creature
affected by temperature, nor didhe think about man's general
weakness, able to live onlywithin narrow limits of heat and
(04:12):
cold.
From there, it did not lead himto thoughts of heaven and the
meaning of man's life.
Fifty degrees below zero meanta bite of frost that hurt and
(04:37):
that must be guarded against bythe use of mittens, ear
coverings, warm moccasins andthick socks.
That it should be moreimportant than that was a
thought that never entered hishead.
As he turned to go, he forcedsome water from his mouth as an
experiment.
There was a sudden noise thatsurprised him.
He tried it again and again inthe air.
Before they could fall to thesnow.
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The drops of water became icethat broke with a noise.
He knew that at 50 below zero,water from the mouth made a
noise when it hit the snow, butthis had done that in the air.
Undoubtedly it was colder than50 below, but exactly how much
colder he did not know.
But the temperature did notmatter.
(05:20):
He was headed for the old campon Henderson Creek where the
boys were already.
They had come across themountain from the Indian Creek
country.
He had taken the long trail tolook at the possibility of
floating logs from the islandsin the Yukon down the river when
the ice melted.
He would be in camp by sixo'clock that evening.
(05:43):
It would be a little after dark, but the boys would be in camp
by six o'clock that evening.
It would be a little after dark, but the boys would be there.
A fire would be burning and ahot supper would be ready.
As he thought of lunch, hepressed his hand against the
package under his jacket it wasalso under his shirt wrapped in
a handkerchief and lying forwarmth against the naked skin.
Otherwise the bread wouldfreeze.
(06:05):
He smiled contentedly tohimself as he thought of those
pieces of bread, each of whichenclosed a generous portion of
cooked meat.
He plunged among the big pinetrees.
The trail was not well markedhere.
(06:26):
Several inches of snow hadfallen since the last sled had
passed.
He was glad he was without asled.
Actually, he carried nothingbut the lunch wrapped in the
handkerchief.
He was surprised, however, atthe cold, wrapped in the
handkerchief.
(06:47):
He was surprised, however, atthe cold.
It certainly was cold hedecided.
As he rubbed his nose and facewith his mittened hand.
He had a good growth of hair onhis face but that did not
protect his nose nor the upperpart of his face from the frosty
air.
Following at the man's heels wasa big native dog.
It was a wolf dog, gray-coatedand not noticeably different
(07:08):
from its brother, the wild wolf.
The animal was worried by thegreat cold.
It knew that this was no timefor traveling.
Its own feeling was closer tothe truth than the man's
judgment.
In reality it was not merelycolder than 50 below.
It was colder than 60 below,than 70 below.
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It was 75 below zero, becausethe freezing point is 32 above
zero.
That meant that there were 170degrees of frost.
The dog did not know anythingabout temperatures.
Possibly in its brain there wasno understanding of a condition
(07:50):
of very cold, such as was inthe man's brain.
But the animal sensed thedanger.
Its fear made it questioneagerly every movement of the
man, as if expecting him to gointo camp or to seek shelter
somewhere and build a fire.
Expecting him to go into campor to seek shelter somewhere and
build a fire.
The dog had learned about fireand it wanted fire.
(08:13):
Otherwise it would dig itselfinto the snow and find shelter
from the cold air.
The frozen moistness of itsbreathing had settled on its fur
(08:48):
in a fine powder of frost.
The hair on the man's face inhis mouth.
The ice held his lips sotightly together that he could
not empty the juice from hismouth.
The result was a long piece ofyellow ice hanging from his lips
.
If he fell down it would breaklike glass into many pieces.
He expected the ice formed bythe tobacco juice, having been
out twice before when it wasvery cold.
But it had not been so cold asthis, he knew.
(09:11):
He continued through the levelforest for several miles.
Then he went down a bank intothe frozen path of a small
stream.
This was Henderson Creek and heknew he was ten miles from
where the stream divided.
He looked at his watch it was10 o'clock.
He was traveling at the rate of4 miles an hour.
(09:33):
Thus he figured he would arrivewhere the stream divided at
half past 12.
He decided he would eat hislunch.
When he arrived there, the dogfollowed again at his heels,
with its tail hanging low as theman started to walk along the
frozen stream.
The old sled trail could beseen, but a dozen inches of snow
(09:55):
covered the marks of the lastsleds.
In a month the man had traveledup or down that silent creek.
The man went steadily ahead.
He was not much of a thinker Atthat moment.
He had nothing to think aboutexcept that he would eat lunch
at the Stream's Divide and thatat six o'clock he would be in
(10:16):
camp with the boys.
There was nobody to talk to andhad there been, speech would
not have been possible becauseof the ice around his mouth.
Once in a while, the thoughtrepeated itself that it was very
cold and that he had neverexperienced such cold.
As he walked along, he rubbedhis face and nose with the back
(10:38):
of his mittened hand.
He did this without thinking,frequently changing hands, but
with all his rubbing, theinstant he stopped, his face and
nose became numb.
His face would surely be frozen.
He knew that and he was sorrythat he had not worn the sort of
nose guard Bud wore when it wascold.
(10:59):
Such a guard passed across thenose and covered the entire face
.
But it did not matter much.
He decided what was?
A little frost, a bit painful,that was all.
It was never serious, empty asthe man's mind was of thoughts.
He was most observant.
He noticed the changes in thecreek, the curves and the bends,
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and always he noted where heplaced his feet.
Curves and the bends, andalways he noted where he placed
his feet.
Once, coming around a bend, hemoved suddenly to the side like
a frightened horse.
He curved away from the placewhere he had been walking and
retraced his steps several feetalong the trail.
He knew the creek was frozen tothe bottom.
No creek could contain water inthat winter.
(11:42):
But he knew also that there werestreams of water that came out
from the hillsides and ran alongunder the snow on top and on
top of the ice of the creek.
He knew that even in thecoldest weather these streams
were never frozen and he alsoknew their danger.
They hid pools of water underthe snow that might be three
inches deep or three feet.
Sometimes a skin of ice half aninch thick covered them and in
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turn was covered by the snow.
Sometimes there was both waterand thin ice, and when a man
broke through he could get verywet.
That was why he had jumped away, so suddenly he had felt the
ice move under his feet.
That was why he had jumped awayso suddenly he had felt the ice
move under his feet.
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He had also heard the noise ofthe snow-covered ice skin
breaking, and to get his feetwet in such a temperature meant
trouble and danger.
At the very least it meantdelay, because he would be
forced to stop and build a fire.
Only under his protection couldhe bear his feet.
While he dried his socks andmoccasins, he stood and studied
(12:53):
the creek bottom and its banks.
He decided that the flowingstream of water came from the
right side.
He thought a while rubbing hisnose and face.
Then he walked to the left.
He stepped carefully and testedthe ice at each step.
Once away from the danger, hecontinued at his four-mile pace.
During the next two hours hecame to several similar dangers.
(13:14):
Usually the snow above thepools had a sunken appearance.
However, once again he camenear to falling through the ice.
Once sensing danger, he madethe dog go ahead.
The dog did not want to go.
It hesitated until the manpushed it forward.
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Then it went quickly across thewhite, unbroken surface.
Suddenly it fell through theice but climbed out on the other
side, which was firm.
It had wet its feet and legs.
Almost immediately the water onthem turned to ice.
The dog made quick efforts toget the ice off its legs.
(13:56):
Then it lay down in the snowand it began to bite out the ice
that had formed between thetoes.
The animal knew enough to dothis.
To permit the eyes to remainwould mean sore feet.
It did not know this.
It merely obeyed the commandsthat arose from the deepest part
of its being.
But the man knew these things.
(14:18):
Having learned them fromexperience, he removed the
mitten from his right hand andhelped the dog tear out the
pieces of ice.
He did not bare his fingersmore than a minute and was
surprised to find that they werenumb.
It certainly was cold.
He pulled on the mitten quicklyand beat the hand across his
breast.
(14:38):
At twelve o'clock.
The day was at its brightest,yet the sun did not appear in
the sky was at its brightest,yet the sun did not appear in
the sky.
At half-past twelve on theminute he arrived at the divide
of the creek.
He was pleased at his rate ofspeed.
If he continued he wouldcertainly be with the boys by
six o'clock that evening.
He unbuttoned his jacket andshirt and pulled forth his lunch
(15:01):
.
The action took no more than aquarter of a minute.
Yet in that brief moment thenumbness touched his bare
fingers.
He did not put the mitten on,but instead struck the fingers
against his leg.
Then he sat down on asnow-covered log to eat.
The pain that followed thestriking of his fingers against
his leg ceased so quickly thathe was frightened.
(15:24):
He had not had time to take abite of his lunch.
He stroked the fingersrepeatedly and returned them to
the mitten.
Then he barred bared the otherhand for the purpose of eating.
He tried to take a mouthful,but the ice around his mouth
prevented him.
Then he knew what was wrong.
(15:46):
He had forgotten to build afire to warm himself.
He laughed at his ownfoolishness.
As he laughed he noted thenumbness in his bare fingers.
He also noted that the feelingwhich had first come to his toes
when he sat down was alreadypassing away.
He wondered whether the toeswere warm or whether they were
(16:08):
numb.
He pulled them inside themoccasins and decided that they
were numb.
He pulled the mittenunhurriedly and stood up.
He was somewhat frightened.
He stamped forcefully until thefeeling returned to his feet.
It certainly was cold.
Was his thought that man fromSulphur Creek had spoken the
(16:30):
truth when telling how cold itsometimes got in this country
and he had laughed at him at thetime.
That showed one must not be toosure of things.
There was no mistake for hisfire.
Working carefully from a smallbeginning, he soon had a roaring
(17:07):
fire Bending over the fire.
He first melted the ice fromhis face.
With the protection of thefire's warmth he ate his lunch.
For the moment the cold hadbeen forced away.
The dog took comfort in thefire, lying at full length,
close enough for warmth and farenough away to escape being
burned.
When the man had finishedeating, he filled his pipe with
(17:30):
tobacco and had a comfortabletime with a smoke.
He then pulled on his mittens,settled his cap firmly about his
ears and started along thecreek toward the left.
The dog was sorry to leave andlook toward the fire.
This man did not know cold.
Possibly none of his ancestorshad known cold, real cold.
(17:50):
But the dog knew and all of itsfamily knew, and it knew that
it was not good to walk outsidein such fearful cold.
It was the time to lie in ahole in the snow and wait for
this awful cold to stop.
There was no real bond betweenthe dog and the man.
The one was the slave of theother.
(18:12):
The dog made no effort toindicate its fears to the man.
It was not concerned with thewell-being of the man, for it
was for its own sake that itlooked toward the fire.
But the man whistled and spoketo it with the sound of the whip
(18:32):
in his voice.
So the dog started walkingclose to the man's heels and
followed him along the trail.
The man put more tobacco in hismouth and started a new growth
of yellow ice on his face.
Again.
His moist breath quicklypowdered the hair on his face
with white.
He looked around.
There did not seem to be somany pools of water under the
(18:55):
snow on the left side ofHenderson Creek and for half an
hour the man saw no signs of any.
Then it happened At a placewhere there were no signs.
The man broke through.
It was not deep.
He was wet to the knees beforehe got out of the water to the
(19:16):
firm snow.
He was angry and cursed hisluck aloud.
He was angry and cursed hisluck aloud.
He had hoped to get into campwith the boys at six o'clock and
this would delay him an hour.
He would have to build a fireand dry his moccasins and socks.
This was the most important atthat low temperature.
(19:37):
He knew that much.
So he turned aside to the bank,which he climbed On top.
Under several small pine treeshe found some firewood which had
been carried there by the highwater of last year.
There were some sticks, butalso larger branches and some
dry grasses.
He threw several large brancheson top of the snow.
(20:00):
This served for a foundationand prevented the young flame
from dying in the wet snow.
He made a flame by touching amatch to a small piece of tree
bark that he took from hispocket.
This burned even better thanpaper.
Placing it on the foundation,he fed the young flame with
(20:20):
pieces of dry grass and with thesmallest dry sticks.
He worked slowly and carefully,realizing his danger.
Gradually, as the flame grewstronger, he increased the size
of the sticks with which he fedit.
He sat in the snow, pulling thesticks from the bushes under
the trees and feeding themdirectly into the flame.
(20:43):
He knew he must not fail.
When it is 75 below zero, a manmust not fail in his first
attempt to build a fire.
This is especially true if hisfeet are wet.
If his feet are dry and hefails, he can run along the
trail for half a mile to keephis blood moving.
(21:03):
But the blood in wet andfreezing feet cannot be kept
moving by running.
When it is 75 degrees below, nomatter how fast he runs, the
wet feet will freeze even harder.
All of this the man knew.
The old man on Sulphur Creekhad told him about it and now he
was grateful for the advice.
(21:24):
Already, all feeling had gonefrom his feet To build the fire.
He had been forced to removehis mittens and the fingers had
quickly become numb.
His pace of four miles an hourhad kept his heart pushing the
blood to all parts of his body.
But the instant he stopped, theaction of the heart slowed down
.
He now received the full forceof the cold.
(21:52):
The blood of his body drew backfrom it.
The blood was alive, like thedog.
Like the dog, it wanted to hideand seek cover away from the
fearful cold.
As long as he walked four milesan hour, the blood rose to the
surface, but now it sank downinto the lowest depths of his
body.
His feet and hands were thefirst to feel its absence.
His wet feet froze first.
(22:14):
His bare fingers were numb,although they had not yet begun
to freeze.
Nose and face were alreadyfreezing, while the skin of all
his body became cold as it lostits blood.
But he was safe.
Toes and nose and face wouldonly be touched by the frost
because the fire was beginningto burn with strength.
(22:34):
He was feeding it with sticksthe size of his finger.
In another minute he would beable to feed it with larger
branches.
Then he could remove his wetmoccasins and socks While they
dried.
He could keep his naked feetwarm by the fire, rubbing them
first with snow.
The fire was a success.
(22:54):
He was safe.
He remembered the advice of theold man on Sulphur Creek and
smiled.
The advice of the old man onSulphur Creek and smiled.
The man had been very seriouswhen he said that no man should
travel alone in that countryafter 50 below zero.
Well, here he was.
He had had the accident, he wasalone and he had saved himself.
(23:16):
Those old men were ratherwomanish.
He thought All a man must dowas to keep his head and he was
all right.
Any man who was a man couldtravel alone.
But it was surprising therapidity with which his face and
(23:38):
nose were freezing and he hadnot thought his fingers could
lose their feeling in so short atime.
Without feeling they were,because he found it very
difficult to make them movetogether to grasp a stick.
They seemed far from his bodyand from him.
When he touched a stick, he hadto look to see whether or not
(23:58):
he was holding it.
All of which mattered little.
He was holding it.
All of which mattered little.
There was the fire, promisinglife.
With every dancing flame, hestarted to untie his moccasins.
They were coated with ice.
The thick socks were like iron,almost to the knees.
He pulled the moccasin.
(24:22):
Strings were like ropes ofsteel.
For a moment he pulled themwith his unfeeling fingers.
Then, realizing the foolishnessof it, he grasped his knife.
But before he could cut thestrings, it happened.
It was his own fault or insteadhis mistake.
He should not have built thefire under the pine tree.
He should have built it in theopen space, but it had been
(24:45):
easier to pull the sticks fromthe bushes and drop them
directly on the fire.
Now, the tree under which hehad done this carried a weight
of snow on its branches.
No wind had been blowing forweeks and each branch was heavy
with snow.
Each time he pulled a stick, heshook the tree slightly.
There had been just enoughmovement to cause the awful
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thing to happen.
High up in the tree, one branchdropped its load of snow.
This fell on the branchesbeneath.
This process continued,spreading through the whole tree
.
The snow fell without warningupon the man in the fire, and
the fire was dead.
Where it had burned was a pileof fresh snow.
The man was shocked.
(25:27):
It was like hearing his ownjudgment of death.
For a moment he sat and staredat the spot where the fire had
been.
Then he grew very calm.
Perhaps the old man on SulphurCreek was right.
If he had a companion on thetrail he would be in no danger
now.
The companion could have builtthe fire.
(25:47):
Now he must build the fire again, and this second time he must
not fail.
Even if he succeeded, he wouldbe likely to lose some toes.
His feet must be badly frozenby now and there would be some
time before the second fire wasready.
Such were his thoughts.
But he did not sink and thinkthem, sit and think them.
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He was busy all the time.
They were passing through hismind.
He made a new foundation for afire, this time in an open space
where no tree would be above it.
Next, he gathered dry grassesand tiny sticks.
He could not bring his fingerstogether to pull them out of the
ground, but was able to gatherthem by the handful.
(26:28):
In this way he also got manypieces that were undesirable,
but it was the best he could do.
He worked carefully, evencollecting an armful of the
larger branches to be used laterwhen the fire gathered strength
.
And all the while the dog satand watched him.
There was an anxious look inhis eyes because it depended
(26:50):
upon him as the fire provider,and the fire was slow in coming.
When all was ready, the manreached in his pocket for the
second piece of tree bark.
He knew the bark was there,although he could not feel it
with his fingers.
He tried again and again, buthe could not grasp it, and all
the time in his mind he knewthat each instant his feet were
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freezing.
This thought alarmed him, buthe fought against it and kept
calm.
He pulled on his mittens withhis teeth and began swinging his
arms.
Then he beat his hands with allhis strength against his sides.
He did this while he wassitting down.
He stood up to do it.
(27:31):
All the while the dog sat inthe snow.
Its tail curled warmly over itsfeet and its sharp wolf ears
bent forward as it looked at theman, ears bent forward as it
looked at the man.
And the man, as he waved hisarms and hands, looked with
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longing at the creature that waswarm and secure in the covering
provided by nature.
After a time he began to noticesome feeling in his beaten
fingers.
The feeling grew stronger untilit became very painful.
But the man welcomed the pain.
He pulled the mitten from hisright hand and grasped the tree
bark from his pocket.
The fingers were quickly numbagain.
Next he brought out his pack ofmatches, but the awful cold had
(28:15):
already driven the life out ofhis fingers.
In his effort to separate onematch from the others, the whole
pack fell in the snow.
He tried to pick it out of thesnow but failed.
The dead fingers could neithertouch nor hold.
Now he was very careful.
He drove the thought of hisfreezing feet and nose and face
from his mind.
(28:35):
He devoted his whole soul topicking up the matches.
He followed the movement of hisfingers with his eyes, using
his sense of sight instead ofthat of touch.
When he saw his fingers on eachside of the pack, he closed
them, that is, he willed toclose them.
Because his fingers did notobey, he put the mitten on the
(28:57):
right hand and beat it fiercelyagainst his knee.
Then, with both mittened hands,he lifted up the pack of matches
, along with much snow to thefront of his jacket.
But he had gained nothing.
After some struggling, hemanaged to get the pack between
his mittened hands.
(29:17):
In this manner, he carried itto his mouth.
The eyes broke as he opened hismouth.
With a fierce effort, he usedhis upper teeth to rub across
the pack in order to separate asingle match.
He succeeded in getting one,which he dropped on his jacket.
His condition was no better.
He could not pick up the match.
Then he thought how he might doit.
(29:39):
He picked up the match with histeeth and drew it across his
leg.
Twenty times he did this beforehe succeeded in lighting it.
As it flamed, he held it withhis teeth to the tree bark, but
the burning smell went up hisnose causing him to cough.
The match fell into the snowand the flame died.
The old man on Sulphur Creek wasright.
(30:00):
He thought in the moment ofcontrolled despair that followed
After fifty below, a man shouldtravel with a companion.
He beat his hands but failed toproduce any feeling in them.
Suddenly he bared both hands.
Removing the mittens with histeeth, he caught the whole pack
(30:21):
of matches between his hands.
Moving the mittens with histeeth, he caught the whole pack
of matches between his hands.
His arm muscles were not frozenand he was able to press the
hands tightly against thematches.
Then he drew the whole packalong his leg and burst into
flames, seventy matches at once.
There was no wind to blow himout.
He kept his head to one side toescape the burning smell and
(30:42):
held the flaming pack to thetree bark.
As he so held it, he noticedsome feeling in his hand.
His flesh was burning.
He could smell it.
The feeling developed into pain.
He continued to endure it.
He held the flame of matches tothe bark that would not light
readily because his own burninghands were taking most of the
flame.
His own burning hands weretaking most of the flame.
(31:02):
Finally, he could endure it nomore.
He pulled his hands apart.
The flaming matches fell intothe snow, but the tree bark was
burning.
He began laying dry grasses andthe tiniest sticks on the flame.
He could not choose carefullybecause they must be pieces that
could be lifted between hishands.
Small pieces of green grassstayed on the sticks and he bit
(31:25):
them off as well as he couldwith his teeth.
He treated the flame carefully.
It meant life and it must notcease.
The blood had left the surfaceof his body and he now began to
(31:48):
shake from the cold.
A large piece of wet plant fellon the little fire.
He tried to push it out withhis fingers.
His shaking body made him pushit too far and he scattered the
little fire over a wide space.
He tried to push the burninggrasses and sticks together
again.
Even with the strong effortthat he made, his trembling
(32:10):
fingers would not obey and thesticks were hopelessly scattered
.
Each stick smoked a little anddied.
The fire provider had failed.
As he looked about him, his eyesnoticed the dog sitting across
the ruins of the fire.
From him, it was making uneasymovements, slightly lifting one
foot than the other.
(32:30):
The sight of the dog put a wildidea in his head.
He remembered the story of theman caught in a storm who killed
an animal and sheltered himselfinside the dead body and thus
was saved.
He would kill the dog and buryhis hands in the warm body until
feeling returned to them.
Then he could build anotherfire.
(32:51):
He spoke to the dog, calling itto him, but in his voice was a
strange note of fear thatfrightened the animal.
It had never known the man tospeak in such a tone before.
Something was wrong and itsensed danger.
It knew not what danger, butsomewhere in its brain arose a
(33:13):
fear of the man.
It flattened its ears at thesound of the man's voice.
Its uneasy movements and theliftings of its feet became more
noticeable, but it would notcome to the man.
He got down on his hands andknees and went toward the dog.
But this unusual position againexcited fear and the animal
moved away.
The man sat in the snow for amoment and struggled for
(33:36):
calmness.
Then he pulled on his mittensusing his teeth, then stood on
his feet.
He glanced down to assurehimself that he was really
standing, because lack offeeling in his feet gave him no
relation to the earth.
His position, however, removedthe fear from the dog's mind.
When he commanded the dog withhis usual voice, the dog obeyed
(33:58):
and came to him as it camewithin his reach.
The man lost control.
His arms stretched out to holdthe dog and he experienced real
surprise when he discovered thathis hands could not grasp.
There was neither bend norfeeling in the fingers.
He had forgotten for the momentthat they were frozen and that
they were freezing more and more.
All of this happened quicklyand before the animal could
(34:21):
escape, he encircled its bodywith his arms.
He sat down in the snow and inthis fashion, held the dog while
it barked and struggled.
But it was all he could do holdits body encircled in its arms
and sit there.
He realized that he could notkill the dog.
There was no way to do it.
With his frozen hands he couldneither draw nor hold his knife,
(34:44):
nor could he grasp the dogaround the throat.
He freed it and it dashedwildly away, still barking.
It stopped forty feet away andobserved him curiously, with
ears sharply bent forward.
The man looked down at his handsto locate them and found them
hanging on the ends of his arms.
He thought it curious that itwas necessary to use his eyes to
(35:08):
discover where his hands were.
He began waving his arms,beating the mitten hands against
his sides.
He did this for five minutes.
His heart produced enough bloodto stop his shaking, but no
feeling was created in his hands, a certain fear of death came
upon him.
He realized that it was nolonger a mere problem of
(35:30):
freezing his fingers and toes,nor of losing his hands and feet
.
It was a problem of life anddeath, with the circumstances
against him.
The fear made him lose controlof himself and he turned and ran
along the creek bed on the lowtrail.
The dog joined him and followedclosely behind.
The man ran blindly in fearsuch as he had never known in
(35:55):
his life.
Slowly, as he struggled throughthe snow, he began to see
things again the banks of thecreek, the bare trees, the sky.
The running made him feelbetter.
He did not shake anymore.
Maybe if he continued to run,his feet would stop freezing.
Maybe if he ran far enough hewould find the camp and the boys
.
Without doubt he would losesome fingers and toes and some
(36:18):
of his face, but the boys wouldtake care of him and save the
rest of him.
When he got there At the sametime there was another thought
in his mind that said he wouldnever get to the camp and the
boys.
It told him that it was toomany miles away and that the
freezing had too great a startand that he would soon be dead.
He pushed his thought to theback of his mind and refused to
(36:39):
consider it.
Sometimes it came forward anddemanded to be heard, but he
pushed it away and tried tothink of other things.
It seemed strange to him thathe could run on feet so frozen
that he could not feel them whenthey struck the earth and took
the weight of his body.
He seemed to be flying alongabove the surface and to have no
(37:00):
connection with the earth.
His idea of running until hearrived at the camp and the boys
presented one problem he lackedthe endurance.
Several times he caught himselfas he was falling.
Finally he dropped to theground, unable to stop his fall.
When he tried to rise, hefailed.
He must sit and rest, hedecided.
(37:22):
Next time he would merely walkand keep going.
As he sat and regained hisbreath, he noticed that he was
feeling warm and comfortable.
He was not shaking and it evenseemed that a warm glow had come
into his body.
And yet when he touched hisnose or face, there was no
feeling.
Running would not bring life tothem, nor would it help his
(37:44):
hands and feet.
Then the thought came to himthat frozen portions of his body
must be increasing.
He tried to keep this thoughtout of his mind and forget it.
He knew that such thoughtscaused a feeling of fright in
him and he was afraid of suchfeelings.
He knew that such thoughtscaused a feeling of fright in
him and he was afraid of suchfeelings.
But the thought returned andcontinued until he could picture
(38:04):
his body totally frozen.
This was too much, and again heran wildly along the trail.
Once he slowed to a walk, butthe thought that the freezing of
his body was increasing madehim run again, and all the time
the dog ran with him at hisheels.
When he fell a second time, thedog curled its tail over its
feet and sat in front of him,facing him curiously eager.
(38:27):
The warmth and security of theanimal angered him.
He cursed it until it flattenedits ears.
This time the shaking because ofthe cold began more quickly.
He was losing his battle withthe frost.
It was moving into his bodyfrom all sides.
This thought drove him forward,but he ran no more than 100
(38:49):
feet when he fell headfirst.
It was his last moment of fear.
When he had recovered his breathand his control, he sat and
thought about meeting death withdignity.
However, the idea did not cometo him in exactly this manner.
His idea was that he had beenacting like a fool.
He had been running around likea chicken with his head cut off
(39:11):
.
He was certain to freeze in hispresent circumstances and he
should accept it calmly.
With this newfound peace of mindcame the first sleepiness.
A good idea, he thought, tosleep his way to death.
Freezing was not as bad aspeople thought.
(39:31):
There were many worse ways todie.
He pictured the boys findinghis body the next day.
Suddenly he saw himself withthem, coming along the trail and
looking for himself, and stillwith them.
He came around a turn in thetrail and found himself lying in
the snow.
He did not belong with himselfanymore.
(39:53):
Even then he was outside ofhimself, standing with the boys
and looking at himself in thesnow.
It certainly was cold, was histhought.
When he returned to the UnitedStates he could tell the folks
what real cold was.
His mind went from this to thethought of the old man of
(40:15):
Sulphur Creek.
He could see him quite clearly,warm and comfortable and
smoking a pop.
You were right, old fellow, youwere right, he murmured to the
old man of Sulphur Creek.
Then the man dropped into whatseemed to him the most
comfortable and satisfying sleephe had ever known.
The dog sat facing him andwaiting.
(40:39):
The brief day ended in a longevening.
There were no signs of a fireto be made.
Never in the dog's experiencehad it known a man to sit like
that in the snow and make nofire.
As the evening grew darker, itseager longing for the fire
mastered it.
With much lifting of its feet.
(40:59):
It cried softly then flattenedits ears, expecting the man's
curse, but the man remainedsilent.
Later the dog howled loudly,and still later it moved close
to the man and caught the smellof death.
This made the animal back awayA little longer.
It delayed howling under thestars that leaped and danced and
(41:22):
shone brightly in the cold.
Then it turned and ran alongthe trail towards the camp.
It knew where there were theother food providers and fire
providers.
This has been a reading of ToBuild a Fire by Jack London.
(41:46):
Thank you for listening.
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