Food and fire, protection and
companionship, were some of the things he received from the god. In
return, he guarded the god's property, defended his body, worked for him,
and obeyed him.
The possession of a god implies service. White Fang's was a service of
duty and awe, but not of love. He did not know what love was. He had no
experience of love. Kiche was a remote memory. Besides, not only had he
abandoned the Wild and his kind when he gave himself up to man, but the
terms of the covenant were such that if ever he met Kiche again he would
not desert his god to go with her. His allegiance to man seemed somehow
a law of his being greater than the love of liberty, of kind and kin.
CHAPTER VI--THE FAMINE
The spring of the year was at hand when Grey Beaver finished his long
journey. It was April, and White Fang was a year old when he pulled into
the home villages and was loosed from the harness by Mit-sah. Though a
long way from his full growth, White Fang, next to Lip-lip, was the
largest yearling in the village. Both from his father, the wolf, and
from Kiche, he had inherited stature and strength, and already he was
measuring up alongside the full-grown dogs. But he had not yet grown
compact. His body was slender and rangy, and his strength more stringy
than massive, His coat was the true wolf-grey, and to all appearances he
was true wolf himself.
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