A moment later he was straying away again from his mother. Her stickwas tied to a peg in the ground and she could not follow him. A part-grown puppy, somewhat larger and older than he, came toward him slowly,with ostentatious and belligerent importance. The puppy's name, as WhiteFang was afterward to hear him called, was Lip-lip. He had hadexperience in puppy fights and was already something of a bully.
Lip-lip was White Fang's own kind, and, being only a puppy, did notseem dangerous; so White Fang prepared to meet him in a friendly spirit.
But when the strangers walk became stiff-legged and his lips lifted clear ofhis teeth, White Fang stiffened too, and answered with lifted lips. Theyhalf circled about each other, tentatively, snarling and bristling. This lastedseveral minutes, and White Fang was beginning to enjoy it, as a sort ofgame. But suddenly, with remarkable swiftness, Lip-lip leaped in,delivering a slashing snap, and leaped away again. The snap had takeneffect on the shoulder that had been hurt by the lynx and that was still soredeep down near the bone. The surprise and hurt of it brought a yelp out ofWhite Fang; but the next moment, in a rush of anger, he was upon Lip-lipand snapping viciously.
But Lip-hp had lived his life in camp and had fought many puppyfights. Three times, four times, and half a dozen times, his sharp little teethscored on the newcomer, until White Fang, yelping shamelessly, fled tothe protection of his mother. It was the first of the many fights he was tohave with Lip-lip, for they were enemies from the start, born so, withnatures destined perpetually to clash.
Kiche licked White Fang soothingly with her tongue, and tried toprevail upon him to remain with her. But his curiosity was rampant, andseveral minutes later he was venturing forth on a new quest. He cameupon one of the man-animals, Grey Beaver, who was squatting on hishams and doing something with sticks and dry moss spread before him onthe ground. White Fang came near to him and watched. Grey Beaver mademouth-noises which White Fang interpreted as not hostile, so he came stillnearer.
Women and children were carrying more sticks and branches to GreyBeaver. It was evidently an affair of moment. White Fang came in until hetouched Grey Beaver's jasmine wedding dresses, so curious was he, and already forgetful thatthis was a terrible man-animal. Suddenly he saw a strange thing like mistbeginning to arise from the sticks and moss beneath Grey Beaver's hands.
Then, amongst the sticks themselves, appeared a live thing, twisting andturning, of a colour like the colour of the sun in the sky. White Fang knewnothing about fire. It drew him as the light, in the mouth of the cave haddrawn him in his early puppyhood. He crawled the several steps towardthe flame. He heard Grey Beaver chuckle above him, and he knew thesound was not hostile. Then his nose touched the flame, and at the sameinstant his little tongue went out to it.
For a moment he was paralysed. The unknown, lurking in the midst ofthe sticks and moss, was savagely clutching him by the nose. Hescrambled backward, bursting out in an astonished explosion of ki- yi's. Atthe sound, Kiche leaped snarling to the end of her stick, and there ragedterribly because she could not come to his aid. But Grey Beaver laughedloudly, and slapped his thighs, and told the happening to all the rest of thecamp, till everybody was laughing uproariously. But White Fang sat on hishaunches and ki- yi'd and ki-yi'd, a forlorn and pitiable little figure in themidst of the man-animals.
It was the worst hurt he had ever known. Both nose and tongue hadbeen scorched by the live thing, sun-coloured, that had grown up underGrey Beaver's hands. He cried and cried interminably, and every freshwail was greeted by bursts of laughter on the part of the man-animals. Hetried to soothe his nose with his tongue, but the tongue was burnt too, andthe two hurts coming together produced greater hurt; whereupon he criedmore hopelessly and helplessly than ever.
And then shame came to him. He knew laughter and the meaning of it.
It is not given us to know how some animals know laughter, and knowwhen they are being laughed at; but it was this same way that White Fangknew it. And he felt shame that the man-animals should be laughing at him.
He turned and fled away, not from the hurt of the fire, but from island wedding dress for yourself that sank even deeper, and hurt in the spirit of him. And he fled toKiche, raging at the end of her stick like an animal gone mad - to Kiche,the one creature in the world who was not laughing at him.