The Wild Animal Grows heard the smallest sounds, and he always knew immediately whether they were the sounds of dangerous things or good things. Buck learned to bite the ice out of his feet with his teeth, and to break the ice on hole with his front legs. He always seemed to know where the wind would come from, and he always found the warmest place to sleep. Buck learned these things by watching, but they also came to him from his ancestors. Buck's ancestors had run wild with other dogs in the forests, and had caught and killed their own meat. Sometimes, on cold nights, Buck put his nose up to the sky and howled like a wolf. Buck's ancestors had howled like this before him, and it was like an old song coming through him from them.