O Chamado da Natureza

Para a Natureza Selvagem

Into the Wild

Buck não lia os jornais. Por isso, ele não sabia sobre o problema que estava chegando. Ele estava vindo para ele, e para todo cachorro grande e forte com pelos longos e quentes na costa oeste.

Buck did not read the newspapers. So he did not know about the trouble that was coming. It was coming for him, and for every big, strong dog with long, warm hair on the west coast.

Longe, no Norte, homens encontraram ouro. O Klondike era uma terra fria no extremo norte do Canadá, e o ouro estava lá. Logo, milhares de homens estavam viajando para o norte, e todos eles queriam cachorros. Eles queriam cachorros pesados com corpos fortes para o trabalho duro e pelos grossos contra o frio.

Far away in the North, men found gold. The Klondike was a cold land in the far north of Canada, and the gold was there. Soon thousands of men were travelling north, and they all wanted dogs. They wanted heavy dogs with strong bodies for hard work and thick hair against the cold.

Buck morava em uma casa grande no ensolarado Vale de Santa Clara, na Califórnia. As pessoas chamavam de lugar do Juiz Miller. Um juiz é o homem que decide em um tribunal. A casa ficava entre árvores altas, com uma varanda larga e fresca em todos os quatro lados. Atrás dela, havia estábulos, campos, árvores frutíferas e uma piscina grande. Os netos do Juiz nadavam lá nas tardes quentes.

Buck lived at a big house in the sunny Santa Clara Valley, in California. People called it Judge Miller’s place. A judge is the man who decides in a court of law. The house stood among tall trees, with a wide, cool veranda round all four sides. Behind it there were stables, fields, fruit trees and a big pool. The Judge’s sons swam there on hot afternoons.

Buck era o rei de toda essa terra. Ele nasceu aqui, e viveu aqui pelos quatro anos de sua vida. Havia outros cachorros, mas eles não contavam. Toots, um pequeno pug japonês, e Ysabel, uma cachorra mexicana sem pelos, quase nunca saíam de casa. Os fox terriers latiam muito, mas eles viviam nos canis.

Buck was the king of all this land. He was born here, and he lived here for the four years of his life. There were other dogs, but they did not count. Toots, a little Japanese pug, and Ysabel, a Mexican dog with no hair, almost never left the house. The fox terriers barked a lot, but they lived in the kennels.

O lugar inteiro era de Buck. Ele nadava na piscina e ia caçar com os filhos do Juiz. Ele passeava com Mollie e Alice, as filhas do Juiz, no início da manhã ou à noite. Nas noites de inverno, ele deitava aos pés do Juiz em frente à lareira. Ele carregava os netinhos do Juiz em suas costas e os rolava na grama. Ele era rei sobre todos os animais do lugar, e sobre as pessoas também.

The whole place was Buck’s. He swam in the pool and went hunting with the Judge’s sons. He walked with Mollie and Alice, the Judge’s daughters, in the early morning or the evening. On winter nights he lay at the Judge’s feet in front of the fire. He carried the Judge’s little grandsons on his back and rolled them in the grass. He was king over every animal on the place, and over the people too.

Seu pai, Elmo, era um enorme São Bernardo, e ele ia a todos os lugares com o Juiz. Buck era um pouco menor que Elmo, porque sua mãe, Shep, era uma pastora escocesa. Mas ele pesava cento e quarenta libras. Uma libra é quase meio quilo. Buck era orgulhoso, e talvez um pouco satisfeito demais consigo mesmo. Mas ele nunca era preguiçoso, e a caça e a natação mantinham seus músculos rígidos.

His father, Elmo, was a huge St. Bernard, and he went everywhere with the Judge. Buck was a little smaller than Elmo, because his mother, Shep, was a Scotch shepherd dog. But he weighed one hundred and forty pounds. A pound is almost half a kilo. Buck was proud, and perhaps a little too pleased with himself. But he was never lazy, and hunting and swimming kept his muscles hard.

Este era Buck no outono de 1897, quando o ouro do Klondike atraiu homens de todo o mundo para o Norte congelado. Mas Buck não lia os jornais. E ele não sabia que Manuel era um amigo perigoso.

This was Buck in the autumn of 1897, when the gold of the Klondike pulled men from all over the world into the frozen North. But Buck did not read the newspapers. And he did not know that Manuel was a dangerous friend.

Manuel era um dos ajudantes do jardineiro, e ele adorava jogar por dinheiro. Ele sempre acreditava em um plano inteligente para ganhar. Mas um plano como aquele precisava de muito dinheiro. E um ajudante de jardineiro ganhava muito pouco, e Manuel tinha uma esposa e muitos filhos.

Manuel was one of the gardener’s helpers, and he loved to play games for money. He always believed in a clever plan to win. But a plan like that needed a lot of money. And a gardener’s helper earned very little, and Manuel had a wife and many children.