The Only Use of
travail
in
The Call of the Wild
- With the aurora borealis flaming coldly overhead, or the stars leaping in the frost dance, and the land numb and frozen under its pall of snow, this song of the huskies might have been the defiance of life, only it was pitched in minor key, with long-drawn wailings and half-sobs, and was more the pleading of life, the articulate travail of existence.†
p. 62.7travail = difficult experience
Definition:
a difficult experience -- especially one involving hard work or pain