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There was a chorus of deep growls, and a young wolf in his fourth year flung back Shere Khanâs question to Akela: âWhat have the Free People to do with a manâs cub?â Now, the Law of the Jungle lays down that if there is any dispute as to the right of a cub to be accepted by the Pack, he must be spoken for by at least two members of the Pack who are not his father and mother. âWho speaks for this cub?â said Akela. âAmong the Free People who speaks?â There was no answer and Mother Wolf got ready for what she knew would be her last fight, if things came to fighting. Then the only other creature who is allowed at the Pack CouncilâBaloo, the sleepy brown bear who teaches the wolf cubs the Law of the Jungle: old Baloo, who can come and go where he pleases because he eats only nuts and roots and honeyârose upon his hind quarters and grunted. âThe manâs cubâthe manâs cub?â he said. âI speak for the manâs cub. There is no harm in a manâs cub. I have no gift of words, but I speak the truth. Let him run with the Pack, and be entered with the others. I myself will teach him.â âWe need yet another,â said Akela. âBaloo has spoken, and he is our teacher for the young cubs. Who speaks besides Baloo?â A black shadow dropped down into the circle. It was Bagheera the Black Panther, inky black all over, but with the panther markings showing up in certain lights like the pattern of watered silk. Everybody knew Bagheera, and nobody cared to cross his path; for he was as cunning as Tabaqui, as bold as the wild buffalo, and as reckless as the wounded elephant. But he had a voice as soft as wild honey dripping from a tree, and a skin softer than down. âO Akela, and ye the Free People,â he purred, âI have no right in your assembly, but the Law of the Jungle says that if there is a doubt which is not a killing matter in regard to a new cub, the life of that cub may be bought at a price. And the Law does not say who may or may not pay that price. Am I right?â âGood! Good!â said the young wolves, who are always hungry. âListen to Bagheera. The cub can be bought for a price. It is the Law.â âKnowing that I have no right to speak here, I ask your leave.â âSpeak then,â cried twenty voices. âTo kill a naked cub is shame. Besides, he may make better sport for you when he is grown. Baloo has spoken in his behalf. Now to Balooâs word I will add one bull, and a fat one, newly killed, not half a mile from here, if ye will accept the manâs cub according to the Law. Is it difficult?â There was a clamor of scores of voices, saying: âWhat matter? He will die in the winter rains. He will scorch in the sun. What harm can a naked frog do us? Let him run with the Pack. Where is the bull, Bagheera? Let him be accepted.â And then came Akelaâs deep bay, crying: âLook wellâlook well, O Wolves!â Mowgli was still deeply interested in the pebbles, and he did not notice when the wolves came and looked at him one by one. At last they all went down the hill for the dead bull, and only Akela, Bagheera, Baloo, and Mowgliâs own wolves were left. Shere Khan roared still in the night, for he was very angry that Mowgli had not been handed over to him. âAy, roar well,â said Bagheera, under his whiskers, âfor the time will come when this naked thing will make thee roar to another tune, or I know nothing of man.â âIt was well done,â said Akela. âMen and their cubs are very wise. He may be a help in time.â âTruly, a help in time of need; for none can hope to lead the Pack forever,â said Bagheera. Akela said nothing. He was thinking of the time that comes to every leader of every pack when his strength goes from him and he gets feebler and feebler, till at last he is killed by the wolves and a new leader comes upâto be killed in his turn. âTake him away,â he said to Father Wolf, âand train him as befits one of the Free People.â And that is how Mowgli was entered into the Seeonee Wolf Pack for the price of a bull and on Balooâs good word. Now you must be content to skip ten or eleven whole years, and only guess at all the wonderful life that Mowgli led among the wolves, because if it were written out it would fill ever so many books. He grew up with the cubs, though they, of course, were grown wolves almost before he was a child. And Father Wolf taught him his business, and the meaning of things in the jungle, till every rustle in the grass, every breath of the warm night air, every note of the owls above his head, every scratch of a batâs claws as it roosted for a while in a tree, and every splash of every little fish jumping in a pool meant just as much to him as the work of his office means to a business man. When he was not learning he sat out in the sun and slept, and ate and went to sleep again. When he felt dirty or hot he swam in the forest pools; and when he wanted honey (Baloo told him that honey and nuts were just as pleasant to eat as raw meat) he climbed up for it, and that Bagheera showed him how to do. Bagheera would lie out on a branch and call, âCome along, Little Brother,â and at first Mowgli would cling like the sloth, but afterward he would fling himself through the branches almost as boldly as the gray ape. He took his place at the Council Rock, too, when the Pack met, and there he discovered that if he stared hard at any wolf, the wolf would be forced to drop his eyes, and so he used to stare for fun. At other times he would pick the long thorns out of the pads of his friends, for wolves suffer terribly from thorns and burs in their coats. He would go down the hillside into the cultivated lands by night, and look very curiously at the villagers in their huts, but he had a mistrust of men because Bagheera showed him a square box with a drop gate so cunningly hidden in the jungle that he nearly walked into it, and told him that it was a trap. He loved better than anything else to go with Bagheera into the dark warm heart of the forest, to sleep all through the drowsy day, and at night see how Bagheera did his killing. Bagheera killed right and left as he felt hungry, and so did Mowgliâwith one exception. As soon as he was old enough to understand things, Bagheera told him that he must never touch cattle because he had been bought into the Pack at the price of a bullâs life. âAll the jungle is thine,â said Bagheera, âand thou canst kill everything that thou art strong enough to kill; but for the sake of the bull that bought thee thou must never kill or eat any cattle young or old. That is the Law of the Jungle.â Mowgli obeyed faithfully. And he grew and grew strong as a boy must grow who does not know that he is learning any lessons, and who has nothing in the world to think of except things to eat. Mother Wolf told him once or twice that Shere Khan was not a creature to be trusted, and that some day he must kill Shere Khan. But though a young wolf would have remembered that advice every hour, Mowgli forgot it because he was only a boyâthough he would have called himself a wolf if he had been able to speak in any human tongue. Shere Khan was always crossing his path in the jungle, for as Akela grew older and feebler the lame tiger had come to be great friends with the younger wolves of the Pack, who followed him for scraps, a thing Akela would never have allowed if he had dared to push his authority to the proper bounds. Then Shere Khan would flatter them and wonder that such fine young hunters were content to be led by a dying wolf and a manâs cub. âThey tell me,â Shere Khan would say, âthat at Council ye dare not look him between the eyes.â And the young wolves would growl and bristle. Bagheera, who had eyes and ears everywhere, knew something of this, and once or twice he told Mowgli in so many words that Shere Khan would kill him some day. Mowgli would laugh and answer: âI have the Pack and I have thee; and Baloo, though he is so lazy, might strike a blow or two for my sake. Why should I be afraid?â It was one very warm day that a new notion came to Bagheeraâborn of something that he had heard. Perhaps Ikki the Porcupine had told him; but he said to Mowgli when they were deep in the jungle, as the boy lay with his head on Bagheeraâs beautiful black skin, âLittle Brother, how often have I told thee that Shere Khan is thy enemy?â âAs many times as there are nuts on that palm,â said Mowgli, who, naturally, could not count. âWhat of it? I am sleepy, Bagheera, and Shere Khan is all long tail and loud talkâlike Mao, the Peacock.â âBut this is no time for sleeping. Baloo knows it; I know it; the Pack know it; and even the foolish, foolish deer know. Tabaqui has told thee too.â âHo! ho!â said Mowgli. âTabaqui came to me not long ago with some rude talk that I was a naked manâs cub and not fit to dig pig-nuts. But I caught Tabaqui by the tail and swung him twice against a palm-tree to teach him better manners.â âThat was foolishness, for though Tabaqui is a mischief-maker, he would have told thee of something that concerned thee closely. Open those eyes, Little Brother. Shere Khan dare not kill thee in the jungle. But remember, Akela is very old, and soon the day comes when he cannot kill his buck, and then he will be leader no more. Many of the wolves that looked thee over when thou wast brought to the Council first are old too, and the young wolves believe, as Shere Khan has taught them, that a man-cub has no place with the Pack. In a little time thou wilt be a man.â âAnd what is a man that he should not run with his brothers?â said Mowgli. âI was born in the jungle. I have obeyed the Law of the Jungle, and there is no wolf of ours from whose paws I have not pulled a thorn. Surely they are my brothers!â Bagheera stretched himself at full length and half shut his eyes. âLittle Brother,â said he, âfeel under my jaw.â Mowgli put up his strong brown hand, and just under Bagheeraâs silky chin, where the giant rolling muscles were all hid by the glossy hair, he came upon a little bald spot. âThere is no one in the jungle that knows that I, Bagheera, carry that markâthe mark of the collar; and yet, Little Brother, I was born among men, and it was among men that my mother diedâin the cages of the kingâs palace at Oodeypore. It was because of this that I paid the price for thee at the Council when thou wast a little naked cub. Yes, I too was born among men. I had never seen the jungle. They fed me behind bars from an iron pan till one night I felt that I was Bagheeraâthe Pantherâand no manâs plaything, and I broke the silly lock with one blow of my paw and came away. And because I had learned the ways of men, I became more terrible in the jungle than Shere Khan. Is it not so?â âYes,â said Mowgli, âall the jungle fear Bagheeraâall except Mowgli.â âOh, thou art a manâs cub,â said the Black Panther very tenderly. âAnd even as I returned to my jungle, so thou must go back to men at lastâto the men who are thy brothersâif thou art not killed in the Council.â âBut whyâbut why should any wish to kill me?â said Mowgli. âLook at me,â said Bagheera. And Mowgli looked at him steadily between the eyes. The big panther turned his head away in half a minute. âThat is why,â he said, shifting his paw on the leaves. âNot even I can look thee between the eyes, and I was born among men, and I love thee, Little Brother. The others they hate thee because their eyes cannot meet thine; because thou art wise; because thou hast pulled out thorns from their feetâbecause thou art a man.â âI did not know these things,â said Mowgli sullenly, and he frowned under his heavy black eyebrows. âWhat is the Law of the Jungle? Strike first and then give tongue. By thy very carelessness they know that thou art a man. But be wise. It is in my heart that when Akela misses his next killâand at each hunt it costs him more to pin the buckâthe Pack will turn against him and against thee. They will hold a jungle Council at the Rock, and thenâand thenâI have it!â said Bagheera, leaping up. âGo thou down quickly to the menâs huts in the valley, and take some of the Red Flower which they grow there, so that when the time comes thou mayest have even a stronger friend than I or Baloo or those of the Pack that love thee. Get the Red Flower.â By Red Flower Bagheera meant fire, only no creature in the jungle will call fire by its proper name. Every beast lives in deadly fear of it, and invents a hundred ways of describing it. âThe Red Flower?â said Mowgli. âThat grows outside their huts in the twilight. I will get some.â âThere speaks the manâs cub,â said Bagheera proudly. âRemember that it grows in little pots. Get one swiftly, and keep it by thee for time of need.â âGood!â said Mowgli. âI go. But art thou sure, O my Bagheeraââhe slipped his arm around the splendid neck and looked deep into the big eyesââart thou sure that all this is Shere Khanâs doing?â âBy the Broken Lock that freed me, I am sure, Little Brother.â âThen, by the Bull that bought me, I will pay Shere Khan full tale for this, and it may be a little over,â said Mowgli, and he bounded away. âThat is a man. That is all a man,â said Bagheera to himself, lying down again. âOh, Shere Khan, never was a blacker hunting than that frog-hunt of thine ten years ago!â Mowgli was far and far through the forest, running hard, and his heart was hot in him. He came to the cave as the evening mist rose, and drew breath, and looked down the valley. The cubs were out, but Mother Wolf, at the back of the cave, knew by his breathing that something was troubling her frog. âWhat is it, Son?â she said. âSome batâs chatter of Shere Khan,â he called back. âI hunt among the plowed fields tonight,â and he plunged downward through the bushes, to the stream at the bottom of the valley. There he checked, for he heard the yell of the Pack hunting, heard the bellow of a hunted Sambhur, and the snort as the buck turned at bay. Then there were wicked, bitter howls from the young wolves: âAkela! Akela! Let the Lone Wolf show his strength. Room for the leader of the Pack! Spring, Akela!â The Lone Wolf must have sprung and missed his hold, for Mowgli heard the snap of his teeth and then a yelp as the Sambhur knocked him over with his forefoot. He did not wait for anything more, but dashed on; and the yells grew fainter behind him as he ran into the croplands where the villagers lived. âBagheera spoke truth,â he panted, as he nestled down in some cattle fodder by the window of a hut. âTo-morrow is one day both for Akela and for me.â Then he pressed his face close to the window and watched the fire on the hearth. He saw the husbandmanâs wife get up and feed it in the night with black lumps. And when the morning came and the mists were all white and cold, he saw the manâs child pick up a wicker pot plastered inside with earth, fill it with lumps of red-hot charcoal, put it under his blanket, and go out to tend the cows in the byre. âIs that all?â said Mowgli. âIf a cub can do it, there is nothing to fear.â So he strode round the corner and met the boy, took the pot from his hand, and disappeared into the mist while the boy howled with fear. âThey are very like me,â said Mowgli, blowing into the pot as he had seen the woman do. âThis thing will die if I do not give it things to eatâ; and he dropped twigs and dried bark on the red stuff. Halfway up the hill he met Bagheera with the morning dew shining like moonstones on his coat. âAkela has missed,â said the Panther. âThey would have killed him last night, but they needed thee also. They were looking for thee on the hill.â âI was among the plowed lands. I am ready. See!â Mowgli held up the fire-pot. âGood! Now, I have seen men thrust a dry branch into that stuff, and presently the Red Flower blossomed at the end of it. Art thou not afraid?â âNo. Why should I fear? I remember nowâif it is not a dreamâhow, before I was a Wolf, I lay beside the Red Flower, and it was warm and pleasant.â All that day Mowgli sat in the cave tending his fire pot and dipping dry branches into it to see how they looked. He found a branch that satisfied him, and in the evening when Tabaqui came to the cave and told him rudely enough that he was wanted at the Council Rock, he laughed till Tabaqui ran away. Then Mowgli went to the Council, still laughing. Akela the Lone Wolf lay by the side of his rock as a sign that the leadership of the Pack was open, and Shere Khan with his following of scrap-fed wolves walked to and fro openly being flattered. Bagheera lay close to Mowgli, and the fire pot was between Mowgliâs knees. When they were all gathered together, Shere Khan began to speakâa thing he would never have dared to do when Akela was in his prime. âHe has no right,â whispered Bagheera. âSay so. He is a dogâs son. He will be frightened.â Mowgli sprang to his feet. âFree People,â he cried, âdoes Shere Khan lead the Pack? What has a tiger to do with our leadership?â âSeeing that the leadership is yet open, and being asked to speakââ Shere Khan began. âBy whom?â said Mowgli. âAre we all jackals, to fawn on this cattle butcher? The leadership of the Pack is with the Pack alone.â There were yells of âSilence, thou manâs cub!â âLet him speak. He has kept our Lawâ; and at last the seniors of the Pack thundered: âLet the Dead Wolf speak.â When a leader of the Pack has missed his kill, he is called the Dead Wolf as long as he lives, which is not long. Akela raised his old head wearily:â âFree People, and ye too, jackals of Shere Khan, for twelve seasons I have led ye to and from the kill, and in all that time not one has been trapped or maimed. Now I have missed my kill. Ye know how that plot was made. Ye know how ye brought me up to an untried buck to make my weakness known. It was cleverly done. Your right is to kill me here on the Council Rock, now. Therefore, I ask, who comes to make an end of the Lone Wolf? For it is my right, by the Law of the Jungle, that ye come one by one.â There was a long hush, for no single wolf cared to fight Akela to the death. Then Shere Khan roared: âBah! What have we to do with this toothless fool? He is doomed to die! It is the man-cub who has lived too long. Free People, he was my meat from the first. Give him to me. I am weary of this man-wolf folly. He has troubled the jungle for ten seasons. Give me the man-cub, or I will hunt here always, and not give you one bone. He is a man, a manâs child, and from the marrow of my bones I hate him!â Then more than half the Pack yelled: âA man! A man! What has a man to do with us? Let him go to his own place.â âAnd turn all the people of the villages against us?â clamored Shere Khan. âNo, give him to me. He is a man, and none of us can look him between the eyes.â Akela lifted his head again and said, âHe has eaten our food. He has slept with us. He has driven game for us. He has broken no word of the Law of the Jungle.â âAlso, I paid for him with a bull when he was accepted. The worth of a bull is little, but Bagheeraâs honor is something that he will perhaps fight for,â said Bagheera in his gentlest voice. âA bull paid ten years ago!â the Pack snarled. âWhat do we care for bones ten years old?â âOr for a pledge?â said Bagheera, his white teeth bared under his lip. âWell are ye called the Free People!â âNo manâs cub can run with the people of the jungle,â howled Shere Khan. âGive him to me!â âHe is our brother in all but blood,â Akela went on, âand ye would kill him here! In truth, I have lived too long. Some of ye are eaters of cattle, and of others I have heard that, under Shere Khanâs teaching, ye go by dark night and snatch children from the villagerâs doorstep. Therefore I know ye to be cowards, and it is to cowards I speak. It is certain that I must die, and my life is of no worth, or I would offer that in the man-cubâs place. But for the sake of the Honor of the Pack,âa little matter that by being without a leader ye have forgotten,âI promise that if ye let the man-cub go to his own place, I will not, when my time comes to die, bare one tooth against ye. I will die without fighting. That will at least save the Pack three lives. More I cannot do; but if ye will, I can save ye the shame that comes of killing a brother against whom there is no faultâa brother spoken for and bought into the Pack according to the Law of the Jungle.â âHe is a manâa manâa man!â snarled the Pack. And most of the wolves began to gather round Shere Khan, whose tail was beginning to switch. âNow the business is in thy hands,â said Bagheera to Mowgli. âWe can do no more except fight.â Mowgli stood uprightâthe fire pot in his hands. Then he stretched out his arms, and yawned in the face of the Council; but he was furious with rage and sorrow, for, wolflike, the wolves had never told him how they hated him. âListen you!â he cried. âThere is no need for this dogâs jabber. Ye have told me so often tonight that I am a man (and indeed I would have been a wolf with you to my lifeâs end) that I feel your words are true. So I do not call ye my brothers any more, but sag [dogs], as a man should. What ye will do, and what ye will not do, is not yours to say. That matter is with me; and that we may see the matter more plainly, I, the man, have brought here a little of the Red Flower which ye, dogs, fear.â He flung the fire pot on the ground, and some of the red coals lit a tuft of dried moss that flared up, as all the Council drew back in terror before the leaping flames. Mowgli thrust his dead branch into the fire till the twigs lit and crackled, and whirled it above his head among the cowering wolves. âThou art the master,â said Bagheera in an undertone. âSave Akela from the death. He was ever thy friend.â Akela, the grim old wolf who had never asked for mercy in his life, gave one piteous look at Mowgli as the boy stood all naked, his long black hair tossing over his shoulders in the light of the blazing branch that made the shadows jump and quiver. âGood!â said Mowgli, staring round slowly. âI see that ye are dogs. I go from you to my own peopleâif they be my own people. The jungle is shut to me, and I must forget your talk and your companionship. But I will be more merciful than ye are. Because I was all but your brother in blood, I promise that when I am a man among men I will not betray ye to men as ye have betrayed me.â He kicked the fire with his foot, and the sparks flew up. âThere shall be no war between any of us in the Pack. But here is a debt to pay before I go.â He strode forward to where Shere Khan sat blinking stupidly at the flames, and caught him by the tuft on his chin. Bagheera followed in case of accidents. âUp, dog!â Mowgli cried. âUp, when a man speaks, or I will set that coat ablaze!â Shere Khanâs ears lay flat back on his head, and he shut his eyes, for the blazing branch was very near. âThis cattle-killer said he would kill me in the Council because he had not killed me when I was a cub. Thus and thus, then, do we beat dogs when we are men. Stir a whisker, Lungri, and I ram the Red Flower down thy gullet!â He beat Shere Khan over the head with the branch, and the tiger whimpered and whined in an agony of fear. âPah! Singed jungle catâgo now! But remember when next I come to the Council Rock, as a man should come, it will be with Shere Khanâs hide on my head. For the rest, Akela goes free to live as he pleases. Ye will not kill him, because that is not my will. Nor do I think that ye will sit here any longer, lolling out your tongues as though ye were somebodies, instead of dogs whom I drive outâthus! Go!â The fire was burning furiously at the end of the branch, and Mowgli struck right and left round the circle, and the wolves ran howling with the sparks burning their fur. At last there were only Akela, Bagheera, and perhaps ten wolves that had taken Mowgliâs part. Then something began to hurt Mowgli inside him, as he had never been hurt in his life before, and he caught his breath and sobbed, and the tears ran down his face. âWhat is it? What is it?â he said. âI do not wish to leave the jungle, and I do not know what this is. Am I dying, Bagheera?â
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