And when they did star

And when they did starThe next morning Buck led the team up the street．straw bagThey moved slowly， because they were tired before they started．Buck had pulled to Dawson and back twice，and he didn't want to do it again．He had watched Hal and Charles and Mercedes and he saw that they didn't know how to do any thing．And，as the days passed，he saw that they could not learn．It took them half the evening to get everything ready for the night；and it took them half the morning to get ready to leave． And when they did start， they often had to stop because something had fallen off the sledge．On some days they travelled twenty kilometres and on some days only ten．

They didn't have enough dog food when they started，and they used what they had much too quickly．Hal gave the dogs extra food because he wanted them to pull harder．Mercedes gave them extra food because she was sorry for them．But it was not food that they wanted，but rest．And when they did starSoon Hal saw that they had travelled only a quarter of the way to Dawson，but had eaten half their food．He had to give the dogs less food．straw bagIt was easy to give them less food，but it was impossible to make them travel faster．