The Song My Paddle Sings

"Meet Buck"

Passage from "The Call of the Wild"

Buck lived at a big house in the sun-kissed Santa Clara Valley. Judge Miller's place, it was called. It stood back from the road, half hidden among the trees, through which glimpses could be caught of the wide cool veranda that ran around its four sides. The house was approached by graveled driveways which wound about through wide-spreading lawns and under the interlacing boughs of tall poplars. At the rear things were on even a more spacious scale than at the front. There were great stables, where a dozen grooms and boys held forth, rows of vine-clad servants' cottages, an endless and orderly array of outhouses, long grape arbors, green pastures, orchards, and berry patches. Then there was the pumping plant for the artesian well, and the big cement tank where Judge Miller's boys took their morning plunge and kept cool in the hot afternoon.

And over this great demesne Buck ruled. Here he was born, and here he had lived the four years of his life. It was true, there were other dogs, There could not but be other dogs on so vast a place, but they did not count. They came and went, resided in the populous kennels, or lived obscurely in the recesses of the house after the fashion of Toots, the Japanese pug, or Ysabel, the Mexican hairless,—strange creatures that rarely put nose out of doors or set foot to ground. On the other hand, there were the fox terriers, a score of them at least, who yelped fearful promises at Toots and Ysabel looking out of the windows at them and protected by a legion of housemaids armed with brooms and mops.

But Buck was neither house-dog nor kennel-dog. The whole realm was his.

Reading Comprehension Questions

1) In the above passage, the main character is which of the following?

a. a soldier

b. a dog

c. a servant

d. Judge Miller's boy

2) The second paragraph of the above passage says "over this great demesne Buck ruled." Based on the context, the word "demesne" means which of the following?

a. outhouse

b. nation

c. plantation

d. pumping well

3) In the above passage, the end of the first paragraph mentions a "big cement tank." This tank is which of the following?

a. a water fountain

b. a gravel driveway

c. a bird bath

d. a swimming pool

4) In the above passage, how does Buck feel about the house-dogs and kennel-dogs that live on the property?

a. they are inspirational

b. they are insignificant

c. they are dangerous

d. they are courageous

5) The above passage can be described as "1^st Person" because which of the following is true?

a. the narrator is not a character in the story

b. the story is based on actual events

c. the narrator is telling his own story

d. the story is completely untrue

6) In the above passage, the end of the second passage states that the housemaids are "armed with brooms and mops." In the sentence, they are using these "weapons" to do what?

a. clean the house

b. chase away outside dogs

c. clean the house-dogs

d. chase away Buck

Answer Key