When I was grade school kid every English teacher made you read Jack London\u2019s \u201cTo Build a Fire.\u201d\u00a0 But unlike most of the stuff given to us that story spoke to me.\u00a0 And after a lifetime of doing stupid things it\u2019s all the more resonant.<\/p>\n
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Following at the man\u2019s heels was a big native dog. It was a wolf dog, gray-coated and not noticeably different from its brother, the wild wolf. The animal was worried by the great cold. It knew that this was no time for traveling. Its own feeling was closer to the truth than the man\u2019s judgment. In reality, it was not merely colder than 50 below zero; it was colder than 60 below, than 70 below. It was 75 below zero. Because the freezing point is 32 above zero, it meant that there were 107 degrees of frost.The dog did not know anything about temperatures. Possibly in its brain there was no understanding of a condition of very cold, such as was in the man\u2019s brain. But the animal sensed the danger. Its fear made it question eagerly every movement of the man as if expecting him to go into camp or to seek shelter somewhere and build a fire. The dog had learned about fire, and it wanted fire. Otherwise, it would dig itself into the snow and find shelter from the cold air.<\/p>\n
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