The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1915-04-10
heScarlet
Plague
BY JACK LONDON
cHAPrER ".
Beginning Of Lifs Anew.

| Beginning Of LIfe Anew.
! But must 60 on with my story.
Travelled through deserted land. As
the time went by l began to yearn
more and more for human beings. But
II never found one. and grew lonelieY
and lonelier. / crossed Livermore
valley and the mountains between 1t
and the great valley of the San Joa-
Quin. You have never seen that val
ley, but 1t is very large and it is the
home of the wild horse. There are
great droves there, thousands and tens
Of thousands. revisited it thirty
years after, 80 ! know. You think
there are lots of wild horses down
here in the coast valleys, but they
are as nothing compared with those
OF the San Joaquin. Strange to say.
the cows. when they went wild. went
back into the lower mountains. Evil
IDENTIFY they were better able to protect
themselves there.
I'm the country districts the ghouls
and providers had been less in evi-
dence. for l found many villages and
towns untouched by fire. But they
were filed by the pestilential dead.
and passed by without exploring
them. 1t was near Lathrop that, out
OF my loneliness, picked up pair OF
collie dogs that were SO newly free
that they were urgently willing to
return to their allegiance to man.
These collies accompanied me for
many years, and the strains Of them
are In these very dogs there that you
boys have today. But in sixty years
the collie strain has worked out. Those
brutes are more like domesticated
wolves than anything else"
Hare-Lip rose to his feet, glanced
TO see that the goats were safe. and
looked at the suns position In the
afternoon sky, advertising impotence
at the prolixity of the old mans tale.
Urged to hurry by Edwin. Ganser
went on:
There is little more to tell. With
my two dogs and my pony, and rid
Ing q horse had managed to cap
ture. ! crossed the San Joaquin and
went on to wonderful valley In the
Sierras called Yosemite. In the great
hotel there I found q prodigious sup
ply of timed provisions. The pasture
was abundant, as was the game, and
the river that ran through the valley
was full Of trout. remained there
three years In an utter loneliness that
none but q man who has once been
highly civilized can understand. Then
! could stand 1t no more. felt that
! was going crazy. Like the dog. !
was q social animal and needed my
kind. / reasoned that since ! had
survived the plague. there was a pos
sibility that others had survived.
Also, / reasoned that after three years
the plague germs must all be gone
aud the land be clean again.
with my horse and dogs and pony,
] set out. Again I crossed the San
Joaquin valley, the mountains beyond.
and came down into Livermore val
ley. The change in those three years
was amazing. All the land had been
splendidly titled, and now l could
scarcely recognize It, such was the
sea of rank vegetation that had over
run the agricultural handiwork Of
man. You see, the wheat, the vege-
tables, and orchard trees had always
been cared for and nursed by man, so
that they were soft and tender. The
weeds and wild bushes and such
things, on the contrary, had always
been fought by man. 80 that they
were tough and resistant As result.
when the hand of man was removed
the wild vegetation smothered and de-
stroyed practically all the domesti-
Gated vegetation. The coyotes were
greatly increased, and It was at this
time that I first encountered wolves,
straying in twos and threes and small
packs, down from the wild regions
where they had always persisted.
1T was at Lake Temescal. not far
from the one-time city of Oakland.
that came upon the first live human
being. oh, my grandsons. how can !
describe to you my emotions, when.
astride my horse and dropping down
the hillside to the lake, saw the
smoke OF campfire rising through
the trees. Almost did my heart stop
beating. ! felt that was going crazy.
Then l heard the cry Of q babe--a hui
man babe. And dogs barked and my
dogs answered. did not know but
that was the one human alive in the
whole world. 1t could not be true
that there were others-smoke. and