The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Strength of the Strong, by Jack London(#12 in our series by Jack London)Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check thecopyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributingthis or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this ProjectGutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit theheader without written permission.Please read the "legal small print," and other information about theeBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included isimportant information about your specific rights and restrictions inhow the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make adonation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts****eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971*******These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****Title: The Strength of the StrongAuthor: Jack LondonRelease Date: October, 1997 [EBook #1075][This file was first posted on October 17, 1997][Most recently updated: June 28, 2003]Edition: 10Language: EnglishCharacter set encoding: US-ASCII*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG ***Transcribed by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.ukThe Strength of the StrongContents:The Strength of the StrongSouth of the Slot
The Unparalleled InvasionThe Enemy of All the WorldThe Dream of DebsThe Sea-FarmerSamuelTHE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG"Parables don't lie, but liars will parable."--Lip-King.Old Long-Beard paused in his narrative, licked his greasy fingers,and wiped them on his naked sides where his one piece of raggedbearskin failed to cover him. Crouched around him, on their hams,were three young men, his grandsons, Deer-Runner, Yellow-Head, andAfraid-of-the-Dark. In appearance they were much the same. Skinsof wild animals partly covered them. They were lean and meagre ofbuild, narrow-hipped and crooked-legged, and at the same time deep-chested, with heavy arms and enormous hands. There was much hairon their chests and shoulders, and on the outsides of their armsand legs. Their heads were matted with uncut hair, long locks ofwhich often strayed before their eyes, beady and black andglittering like the eyes of birds. They were narrow between theeyes and broad between the cheeks, while their lower jaws wereprojecting and massive.It was a night of clear starlight, and below them, stretching awayremotely, lay range on range of forest-covered hills. In thedistance the heavens were red from the glow of a volcano. At theirbacks yawned the black mouth of a cave, out of which, from time totime, blew draughty gusts of wind. Immediately in front of themblazed a fire. At one side, partly devoured, lay the carcass of abear, with about it, at a respectable distance, several large dogs,shaggy and wolf-like. Beside each man lay his bow and arrows and ahuge club. In the cave-mouth a number of rude spears leanedagainst the rock."So that was how we moved from the cave to the tree," old Long-Beard spoke up.They laughed boisterously, like big children, at recollection of aprevious story his words called up. Long-Beard laughed, too, thefive-inch bodkin of bone, thrust midway through the cartilage ofhis nose, leaping and dancing and adding to his ferociousappearance. He did not exactly say the words recorded, but he madeanimal-like sounds with his mouth that meant the same thing."And that is the first I remember of the Sea Valley," Long-Beardwent on. "We were a very foolish crowd. We did not know thesecret of strength. For, behold, each family lived by itself, andtook care of itself. There were thirty families, but we got nostrength from one another. We were in fear of each other all thetime. No one ever paid visits. In the top of our tree we built agrass house, and on the platform outside was a pile of rocks, which
were for the heads of any that might chance to try to visit us.Also, we had our spears and arrows. We never walked under thetrees of the other families, either. My brother did, once, underold Boo-oogh's tree, and he got his head broken and that was theend of him."Old Boo-oogh was very strong. It was said he could pull a grownman's head right off. I never heard of him doing it, because noman would give him a chance. Father wouldn't. One day, whenfather was down on the beach, Boo-oogh took after mother. Shecouldn't run fast, for the day before she had got her leg clawed bya bear when she was up on the mountain gathering berries. So Boo-oogh caught her and carried her up into his tree. Father never gother back. He was afraid. Old Boo-oogh made faces at him."But father did not mind. Strong-Arm was another strong man. Hewas one of the best fishermen. But one day, climbing after sea-gull eggs, he had a fall from the cliff. He was never strong afterthat. He coughed a great deal, and his shoulders drew near to eachother. So father took Strong-Arm's wife. When he came around andcoughed under our tree, father laughed at him and threw rocks athim. It was our way in those days. We did not know how to addstrength together and become strong.""Would a brother take a brother's wife?" Deer-Runner demanded."Yes, if he had gone to live in another tree by himself.""But we do not do such things now," Afraid-of-the-Dark objected."It is because I have taught your fathers better." Long-Beardthrust his hairy paw into the bear meat and drew out a handful ofsuet, which he sucked with a meditative air. Again he wiped hishands on his naked sides and went on. "What I am telling youhappened in the long ago, before we knew any better.""You must have been fools not to know better," was Deer-Runner'scomment, Yellow-Head grunting approval."So we were, but we became bigger fools, as you shall see. Still,we did learn better, and this was the way of it. We Fish-Eatershad not learned to add our strength until our strength was thestrength of all of us. But the Meat-Eaters, who lived across thedivide in the Big Valley, stood together, hunted together, fishedtogether, and fought together. One day they came into our valley.Each family of us got into its own cave and tree. There were onlyten Meat-Eaters, but they fought together, and we fought, eachfamily by itself."Long-Beard counted long and perplexedly on his fingers."There were sixty men of us," was what he managed to say withfingers and lips combined. "And we were very strong, only we didnot know it. So we watched the ten men attack Boo-oogh's tree. Hemade a good fight, but he had no chance. We looked on. When someof the Meat-Eaters tried to climb the tree, Boo-oogh had to showhimself in order to drop stones on their heads, whereupon the otherMeat-Eaters, who were waiting for that very thing, shot him full of
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