"The lazy brutes, I'll show them," he cried, preparing to lash out at them with the whip. But Mercedes interfered, crying, "Oh, Hal, you mustn't," as she caught hold of the whip and wrenched it from him. "The poor dears! Now you must promise you won't be harsh with them for the rest of the trip, or I won't go a step."

"Precious lot you know about dogs," her brother sneered; "and I wish you'd leave me alone. They're lazy, I tell you, and you've got to whip them to get anything out of them. That's their way. You ask any one. Ask one of those men."

—The Call of the Wild,
Jack London

Based on the passage, what does Hal think about Mercedes?

that she does not know how to handle the dogs
that she wants to take command away from him
that she demands too much effort from him
that she has a deep-seated fear of dogs