The Jungle Books

Read The Jungle Books for Free Online Page B

Book: Read The Jungle Books for Free Online
Authors: Rudyard Kipling, Alev Lytle Croutier
down his face.
    “What is it? What is it?” he said. “I do not wish to leave the jungle, and I do not know what this is. Am I dying, Bagheera?”
    “No, Little Brother. That is only tears such as men use,” said Bagheera. “Now I know thou art a man, and a man’s cub no longer. The jungle is shut indeed to thee henceforward. Let them fall, Mowgli. They are only tears.” So Mowgli sat and cried as though his heart would break; and he had never cried in all his life before.
    “Now,” he said, “I will go to men. But first I must say farewell to my mother.” And he went to the cave where she lived with Father Wolf, and he cried on her coat, while the four cubs howled miserably.
    “Ye will not forget me?” said Mowgli.
    “Never while we can follow a trail,” said the cubs. “Come to the foot of the hill when thou art a man, andwe will talk to thee; and we will come into the crop-lands to play with thee by night.”
    “Come soon!” said Father Wolf. “Oh, wise little frog, come again soon, for we be old, thy mother and I.”
    “Come soon,” said Mother Wolf, “little naked son of mine, for, listen, child of man, I loved thee more than ever I loved my cubs.”
    “I will surely come,” said Mowgli, “and when I come it will be to lay out Shere Khan’s hide upon the Council Rock. Do not forget me! Tell them in the jungle never to forget me!”
    The dawn was beginning to break when Mowgli went down the hillside alone, to meet those mysterious things that are called men.
       
       
HUNTING-SONG OF THE SEEONEE PACK
    As the dawn was breaking the sambur belled
    Once, twice, and again!
    And a doe leaped up and a doe leaped up
    From the pond in the wood where the wild deer sup.
    This I, scouting alone, beheld
    Once, twice, and again!
    As the dawn was breaking the sambur belled
    Once, twice, and again!
    And a wolf stole back and a wolf stole back
    To carry the word to the waiting pack,
    And we sought and we found and we bayed on his track
    Once, twice, and again!
    As the dawn was breaking the wolf pack yelled
    Once, twice, and again!
    Feet in the jungle that leave no mark!
    Eyes that can see in the dark—the dark!
    Tongue—give tongue to it! Hark! O hark!
    Once, twice, and again!

KAA’S HUNTING
    His spots are the joy of the leopard: his horns are the buffalo’s pride.
    Be clean, for the strength of the hunter is known by the gloss of his hide.
    If ye find that the bullock can toss you, or the heavy-browed sambur can gore,
    Ye need not stop work to inform us: we knew it ten seasons before.
    Oppress not the cubs of the stranger, but hail them as Sister and Brother,
    For though they are little and fubsy, it may be the bear is their mother.
    “There is none like to me!” says the cub in the pride of his earliest kill;
    But the jungle is large and the cub he is small. Let him think and be still.
    Maxims of Baloo
    A LL that is told here happened some time before Mowgli was turned out of the Seeonee Wolf Pack, or revenged himself on Shere Khan the Tiger. It was in the days when Baloo was teaching him the Law of the Jungle. The big, serious, old brown bear was delighted to have so quick a pupil, for the young wolves will only learn as much of the Law of the Jungle as applies to their own pack and tribe, and run away as soon as they can repeat the Hunting-Verse: “Feet that make no noise; eyes that can see in the dark; ears that can hear the winds in their lairs; and sharp white teeth, all these things are the marks of our brothers except Tabaqui theJackal and the hyena whom we hate.” But Mowgli, as a man-cub, had to learn a great deal more than this. Sometimes Bagheera the Black Panther would come lounging through the jungle to see how his pet was getting on, and would purr with his head against a tree while Mowgli recited the day’s lesson to Baloo. The boy could climb almost as well as he could swim, and swim almost as well as he could run. So Baloo, the Teacher of the Law, taught him the Wood and Water

Similar Books

Vampire Dragon

Annette Blair

The Blood of Olympus

Rick Riordan

The Island of Excess Love

Francesca Lia Block

Prickly Business

Piper Vaughn & Kenzie Cade

Infinity Unleashed

Sedona Venez