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
Mowgli s 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.
Ay, roar well, said Bagheera, under his whiskers, for the time will
come when this naked thing will make thee roar to another tune, or I
know nothing of man.
It was well done, said Akela. Men and their cubs are very wise. He
may be a help in time.
Truly, a help in time of need; for none can hope to lead the Pack
forever, 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 up--to be killed in his turn.
Take him away, he said to Father Wolf, and train him as befits one of
the Free People.
And that is how Mowgli was entered into the Seeonee Wolf Pack for the
price of a bull and on Baloo s 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 bat s 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
10