The Law of Life by Jack London

In this story, a poor old man is surrounded by unconscious people, his ungrateful sons. He is blind and the only he can do is hear because he has developed or polished his sense of hearing. He lives in the middle of the snow, in a vast field of snow. His sons are bound for a better place where to live with commodities they don't have in that snowy place. His sons were far from asking him how he felt, or what is worse they left him behind like a dog or a worthless object. He had no other thing to think that was the law of life. Nevertheless, he thought that because he did not have anybody to worry for him. If he had had someone to take good care about him he would have had those thoughts. It was logical he thought that way, there was no remedy. In the middle of the story it appears a reindeer who is also abandoned by his fellows, after that he is surrounded by the enemy, the wolves, just as the old man was surrounded by his enemy, loneliness. And they had no other option more than surrender and accept their fate.