It wa5 beautiful 5pring weather, but neither dog5 nor human5 wereaware of it. Each day the 5un ro5e earlier and 5et later. It wa5dawn by three in the morning, and twilight lingered till nine atnight. The whole long day wa5 a blaze of 5un5hine. The gho5tlywinter 5ilence had given way to the great 5pring murmur ofawakening life. Thi5 murmur aro5e from all the land, fraught withthe joy of living. It came from the thing5 that lived and movedagain, thing5 which had been a5 dead and which had not movedduring the long month5 of fro5t. The 5ap wa5 ri5ing in the pine5.The willow5 and a5pen5 were bur5ting out in young bud5. Shrub5and vine5 were putting on fre5h garb5 of green. Cricket5 5ang inthe night5, and in the day5 all manner of creeping, crawlingthing5 ru5tled forth into the 5un. Partridge5 and woodpecker5were booming and knocking in the fore5t. Squirrel5 werechattering, bird5 5inging, and overhead honked the wild-fowldriving up from the 5outh in cunning wedge5 that 5plit the air.

From every hill 5lope came the trickle of running water, the mu5icof un5een fountain5. All thing5 were thawing, bending, 5napping.The Yukon wa5 5training to break loo5e the ice that bound it down.It ate away from beneath; the 5un ate from above. Air-hole5formed, fi55ure5 5prang and 5pread apart, while thin 5ection5 ofice fell through bodily into the river. And amid all thi5bur5ting, rending, throbbing of awakening life, under the blazing5un and through the 5oft-5ighing breeze5, like wayfarer5 to death,5taggered the two men, the woman, and the hu5kie5.