The Second Jungle Book | Page 6

fro. "Good hunting, all
you of my blood," he added, lying own at full length, one flank thrust
out of the shallows; and then, between his teeth, "But for that which is
the Law it would be VERY good hunting."
The quick-spread ears of the deer caught the last sentence, and a
frightened whisper ran along the ranks. "The Truce! Remember the
Truce!"
"Peace there, peace!" gurgled Hathi, the wild elephant. "The Truce
holds, Bagheera. This is no time to talk of hunting."
"Who should know better than I?" Bagheera answered, rolling his
yellow eyes up-stream. "I am an eater of turtles--a fisher of frogs.
Ngaayah! Would I could get good from chewing branches!"
"WE wish so, very greatly," bleated a young fawn, who had only been
born that spring, and did not at all like it. Wretched as the Jungle
People were, even Hathi could not help chuckling; while Mowgli, lying
on his elbows in the warm water, laughed aloud, and beat up the scum
with his feet.
"Well spoken, little bud-horn," Bagheera purred. "When the Truce ends
that shall be remembered in thy favour," and he looked keenly through
the darkness to make sure of recognising the fawn again.
Gradually the talking spread up and down the drinking-places. One
could hear the scuffling, snorting pig asking for more room; the
buffaloes grunting among themselves as they lurched out across the
sand-bars, and the deer telling pitiful stories of their long foot-sore
wanderings in quest of food. Now and again they asked some question
of the Eaters of Flesh across the river, but all the news was bad, and the
roaring hot wind of the Jungle came and went between the rocks and
the rattling branches, and scattered twigs, and dust on the water.
"The men-folk, too, they die beside their ploughs," said a young
sambhur. "I passed three between sunset and night. They lay still, and
their Bullocks with them. We also shall lie still in a little."
"The river has fallen since last night," said Baloo. "O Hathi, hast thou
ever seen the like of this drought?"
"It will pass, it will pass," said Hathi, squirting water along his back

and sides.
"We have one here that cannot endure long," said Baloo; and he looked
toward the boy he loved.
"I?" said Mowgli indignantly, sitting up in the water. "I have no long
fur to cover my bones, but--but if THY hide were taken off, Baloo----"
Hathi shook all over at the idea, and Baloo said severely:
"Man-cub, that is not seemly to tell a Teacher of the Law. Never have I
been seen without my hide."
"Nay, I meant no harm, Baloo; but only that thou art, as it were, like the
cocoanut in the husk, and I am the same cocoanut all naked. Now that
brown husk of thine----" Mowgli was sitting cross-legged, and
explaining things with his forefinger in his usual way, when Bagheera
put out a paddy paw and pulled him over backward into the water.
"Worse and worse," said the Black Panther, as the boy rose spluttering.
"First Baloo is to be skinned, and now he is a cocoanut. Be careful that
he does not do what the ripe cocoanuts do."
"And what is that?" said Mowgli, off his guard for the minute, though
that is one of the oldest catches in the Jungle.
"Break thy head," said Bagheera quietly, pulling him under again.
"It is not good to make a jest of thy teacher," said the bear, when
Mowgli had been ducked for the third time.
"Not good! What would ye have? That naked thing running to and fro
makes a monkey-jest of those who have once been good hunters, and
pulls the best of us by the whiskers for sport." This was Shere Khan,
the Lame Tiger, limping down to the water. He waited a little to enjoy
the sensation he made among the deer on the opposite to lap, growling:
"The jungle has become a whelping-ground for naked cubs now. Look
at me, Man-cub!"
Mowgli looked--stared, rather--as insolently as he knew how, and in a
minute Shere Khan turned away uneasily. "Man-cub this, and Man-cub
that," he rumbled, going on with his drink, "the cub is neither man nor
cub, or he would have been afraid. Next season I shall have to beg his
leave for a drink. Augrh!"
"That may come, too," said Bagheera, looking him steadily between the
eyes. "That may come, too--Faugh, Shere Khan!--what new shame hast
thou brought here?"
The Lame Tiger had dipped his chin and jowl in the water, and dark,

oily streaks were floating from it down-stream.
"Man!" said Shere Khan coolly, "I killed an hour since." He went on
purring and growling to himself.
The line of beasts shook and wavered to and