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india hears the of the but it was all for the sake of little who had seen what never man had seen before the dance of the at night and alone in i the heart of the hills i and the the song that s mother sang to the baby who poured the harvest and made the winds to blow sitting at the of a day of long ago gave to each his portion food and and fate from the king upon to the the gate all made he the he made all thorn for the for the and mother s heart fir sleepy head little son the book wheat he gave to rich folk to the poor broken scraps for holy men that beg from door to door cattle to the tiger to the and rags and bones to wicked wolves without the wall at night naught he found too lofty none he saw too low beside him watched them come and go thought to cheat her husband turning to jest stole the little and hid it in her breast so she the i turn and see tall are the heavy are the but this was least of little things little son of mine when the was ended she said master of a million mouths is not one made answer all have had their part even he the little one hidden thy heart from her breast she plucked it the thief saw the least of little things a new grown leaf saw and feared and wondered making prayer to who hath surely given meat to all that live all things made he the he made all thorn for the for the and mother s heart for sleepy head o little son of mine her majesty s servants you can work it out by but the way of can twist it you can turn but the way of s iy simple rule of three le way of can it till you drop way of pop i her majesty s servants it had been heavily for one whole month i on a camp of thirty thousand men thousands of horses and all gathered together at a place called to be by the of india he was receiving a visit from the of a wild king of a very wild country and the had brought with him for a i eight hundred men and horses who i had never seen a camp or a before in i their lives savage men and savage horses from somewhere at the back of central asia every night a mob of these horses would be sure i break their heel ropes and up down the camp through the mud in the dark i the book the would break loose and run about and fall over the ropes of the tents and you can imagine how pleasant that was for men trying to go to sleep my tent lay far away from the lines and i thought it was safe but one night a man his head in and j shouted get out quick they re coming h my tent s gone i knew who they were so i put on my j boots and and out into the t little my fox went out through the other side and then there was a i roaring and a and and i saw i the tent cave in as the pole snapped and to dance about like a mad ghost a into it and wet and angry as i was i could not help laughing then i ran on because i did not know how many might have got loose and before long i was out of sight of the camp my way through the mud at last i fell over the tail end of a gun and by that knew i was somewhere near the lines where the cannon were at night as i did not want to about any more in the and the dark i put my over the of one gun and made a sort of with two or three that i found and her majesty s servants lay along the tail of another gun wondering where had got to and where i might be just as i was getting ready to sleep i heard a of harness and a and a mule passed me shaking his wet ears he belonged to a screw gun battery for i could hear the rattle of the and rings and chains and things on his the screw guns arc tidy little cannon made in two pieces that are together when the time comes to use they are taken up mountains anywhere that a mule can find a road and they are very useful for fighting in rocky country behind the mule there was a with his big soft feet and slipping in the mud and his neck to and fro like a strayed hen s luckily i knew enough of beast language not wild beast language but camp beast of course from the natives to know what he was saying he must have been the one that into my tent for he called to the mule what shall i do where shall i go i have fought with a white thing that waved and it took a stick and h hit me on the neck that was my broken tent ft pole and i was very glad tc shall k we run on the book was you said the mule you and r is that have been disturbing the camp ri il you ii be beaten for this in the but i may as well give you something on u now i heard the harness as the mule backed and t the in the ribs that rang like a her time he said you ii know belt run through a at n thieves and	39
fire sit down ana k i neck quiet the do j fashion like a two foot rule and sat there was a regular beat of in the darkness and a big troop horse up as steadily as though he were on parade jumped a gun tail and landed close to the mule it s disgraceful he said blowing out his nostrils those have through our lines again the third time this week how s a horse to keep his condition if he is n t allowed to sleep who s here i m the piece mule of number two gun of the first screw battery said the mule and the other s one of your friends he s me up too who are you number fifteen e troop ninth her majesty s servants dick s horse stand over a little there oh beg your pardon said the mule it s too dark to see much are n t these too sickening for anything i walked out of my lines to get a little peace and quiet here my lords said the humbly we dreamed bad dreams in the night and we were very much afraid i am only a baggage of the th native and i am not so brave as you are my lords then why the did n t you stay and carry baggage for the th native instead of running all round the camp said the mule they were such very bad dreams said the i am sorry listen what is that shall we run on again sit down said the mule or you snap your long legs between the guns he cocked one ear and listened he said gun on my word you and your friends have the camp very thoroughly it takes a good deal of to put up a gun i heard a chain dragging along the ground and a yoke of the great sulky white that d n the book the heavy siege guns when the won t go any nearer to the came along together and almost stepping on the chain was another calling wildly for that s one of our said the old mule to the troop horse he s calling for me here stop the dark never hurt anybody yet the gun lay down together and began the but the young huddled close to things he said fearful and horrible things they came into our lines while we were asleep d you think they ii kill us i a very great mind to give you a number one kicking said the idea of a fourteen hand mule with your training the battery before this gentleman gently gently said the troop horse remember they are always like this to begin with the first time i ever saw a man it was in when i was a three year old i ran for half a day and if i d seen a i should have been running still nearly all our horses for the english cavalry are brought to india from and are broken in by the themselves her majesty s servants r enough said stop shaking the first time they put the full harness with all its chains on my back i stood on my fore legs and kicked every bit of it off i had n t learned the real science of kicking then but the battery said they had never seen anything like it but this was n t harness or anything that said the young mule you know don t mind that now it was things like trees and they fell up and down the lines and and my head rope broke and i could n t find my driver and i could n t find you so i ran off with with these gentlemen h m said as soon as i heard the were loose i came away on my own account quietly when a battery a screw gun i mule calls gun gentlemen he must be very badly shaken up who are you fellows on the ground there the gun rolled their and answered both together the seventh yoke of the first gun of the big gun battery we were asleep when the came but when we were trampled on we got up and walked away it is better to lie quiet in the mud than to be disturbed on good we told your friend l the book here that there was nothing to be afraid of but he knew so much that he thought otherwise they went on that comes of being afraid said you get laughed at by gun i hope you like it young un the young mule s teeth snapped and i heard him say something about not being afraid of any old in the world but the only their horns together and went on now don t be angry you ve been afraid that s the worst kind of cowardice said the troop horse anybody can be forgiven for being scared in the night think if they see things they don t understand we ve broken out of our again and again four hundred and fifty of us just because a new got to telling tales of whip at home in till we were scared to death of the loose ends of our head ropes that s all very well in camp said i m not above myself for the fun of the thing when i have n t been out for a day or two but what do you do on active service oh that s quite another set of new shoes said the troop horse dick s on my i i i i i il her majesty s servants i back then and drives his knees into me and all j i have to do is to watch where i am putting my feet and to keep my hind legs well under me and	39
i be bridle wise what s bridle wise said the young mule by the blue of the back blocks i the troop horse do you mean to say that you are n t taught to be bridle wise in your business how can you do anything unless you i can spin round at once when the rein is pressed on your neck it means life or death to your i man and of course that s life or death to you i get round with your hind legs under you the in i you feel the rein on your neck if you have n t room to swing round rear up a little and i come round on your hind legs that s being bridle wise j we are n t taught that way said the i mule stiffly we re taught to obey the man i at our head step off when he says so and step i in when he says so i suppose it comes to the i same thing now with all this fine fancy ness and which must be very bad for your what do you that depends said the troop horse gen i have to go in among a lot of yelling hairy men with knives long shiny knives worse than j the book the s knives and have to take care that dick s boot is just touching the next man s boot without crushing it can see dick s lance to the right of my right eye and know i m safe i should n t care to be the man or horse that stood up to dick and me when we re in a hurry don t the knives hurt said the young j mule well i got one cut across the chest once but that was n t dick s a lot i should have cared whose fault it was if it hurt said the young mule you must said the troop horse if you don t trust your man you may as well run away at once that s what some of our horses do and i don t blame them as i was saying it was n t dick s fault the man was lying on the ground and i stretched myself not to tread on him and he up at me next time i have to go over a man lying down i shall step on him hard h m said it sounds very foolish knives are dirty things at any time the proper thing to do is to climb up a mountain with a well balanced saddle hang on by all four feet and your ears too and creep and crawl and along till you come out hundreds of feet i i l m above her majesty s servants above any one else on a ledge where there s room enough for your hoofs then you stand still and keep quiet never ask a man to hold your head young un keep quiet while the guns are being put together and then you watch the little shells drop down into the ever so far below don t you ever trip said the troop horse they say that when a mule you can split a hen s ear said now and again per a badly packed saddle will upset a mule but it s very seldom i wish i could show you our business it s beautiful why it took me three years to find out what the men were driving at the science of the thing is never to show up against the sky line because if you do you may get fired at remember that young un always keep hidden as much as possible even if you have to go a mile out of your way i lead the battery when it comes to that sort of climbing fired at without the chance of running into the people who are firing said the troop horse thinking hard i could n t stand that i should want to charge with dick oh no you would n t you know that as soon as the guns are in position they ii do the charging that s scientific and neat but knives the baggage had been his head to and fro for some time past anxious to get a word in then i heard him say as he cleared his throat nervously i i have fought a little but not in that climbing way or that running way no now you mention it said you don t look as though you were made for climbing or running much well how was it old hay the proper way said the we all sat down oh my and said the troop horse under his breath sat down we sat down a hundred of us the went on in a big square and the men piled our and outside the square and they fired over our backs the men did on all sides of the square what sort of men any men that came along said the troop horse they teach us in riding school to lie down and let our masters fire across us but dick is the only man i d trust to do that it my and besides can t see with my head on the ground her majesty s servants s what does it matter who fires across you said the there are plenty of men and plenty of other close by and a great many clouds of smoke i am not frightened then i sit still and wait and yet said you dream bad dreams and upset the camp at night well well before i d lie down not to speak of sitting down and let a man fire across me my heels and his head would have something to say to each	39
other did you ever hear anything so awful as that there was a long silence and then one of the gun lifted up his big head and said this is very foolish indeed there is only one way of fighting oh go on said please don t mind me i suppose you fellows fight standing on your tails only one way said the two together they must have been this is that way to put all twenty yoke of us to the big gun as soon as two tails trumpets two tails is camp for the elephant what does two tails trumpet for said the young mule to show that he is not going any nearer to the smoke on the other side two tails is a i the book coward then we the big gun all do not climb like cats nor run like we go across the level plain twenty yoke of us till we are again and we while j the big guns talk across the plain to some town i with mud walls and pieces if the wall fall out and the dust goes up as the many cattle were coming home and you choose that time for do you said the ig mule that time or any other eating is always good we eat till we are up again and the gun back to where wo tails is waiting for it sometimes there are big guns in the city that speak back and some of us are killed and then there is all the more for those that are left this is fate nothing but fate none the less two tails is a great coward that is the proper way to fight we are brothers from our father was a sacred bull of we have spoken well i ve certainly learned something tonight said the troop horse do you gentlemen of the screw gun battery feel inclined to eat when you are being fired at with big guns and two tails is behind you her majesty s servants about as much as we feel inclined to sit down and let men all over us or run into people with knives i never heard such stuff a mountain ledge a well balanced load a driver you can trust to let you pick your own way and i m your mule but the other things no said with a stamp of his foot of course said the troop horse every one is not made in the same way and i can quite see that your family on your father s side would fail to understand a great many things never you mind my family on my father s side said angrily for every mule hates to be reminded that his father was a donkey my father was a southern gentleman and he could pull down and bite and kick into rags every horse he came across remember that you big brown means wild horse without any breeding imagine the feelings of if a called her a and you can imagine how the horse felt saw the white of his eye glitter in the dark see here you son of an imported he said between his teeth i d have you know that i m related on my mother s side to of the cup and the book ome from we are n t accustomed to ridden over by any pig headed mule in a pop gun l battery are you ready on your hind legs they i b reared up facing each other and i was ex i i a furious fight when a i voice called out of the dark ess to the right children what are you t about there k be quiet m both beasts dropped with a of dis m for neither horse nor n e can bear to listen h to an elephant s voice it s two tails said e troop horse i h can t stand him a tail at each end is n t fair my feelings exactly said crowding into the troop horse for company we re very alike in some things suppose we ve inherited them from our mothers said the troop horse it s not worth about hi two tails are you tied up yes said two tails with a laugh all up his trunk i m for the night i ve heard what you fellows have been saying but don t be afraid i m not coming over the and the said half aloud her s servants afraid of two tails what nonsense and the went on we are sorry that you heard but it is true two tails why are you afraid of the guns when they fire well said two tails rubbing one hind leg against the other exactly like a little boy saying a piece i don t quite know whether you d understand we don t but we have to pull the guns said the i know it and i know you are a good deal than you think you are but it s different with me my battery captain called me a the other day that s another way of fighting i suppose said who was recovering his spirits you don t know what that means of course but i do it means and between and that is just where i am i can see inside my head what will happen when a shell bursts and you can t i can said the troop horse at least a little bit i try not to think about it i can see more than you and i do think about it i know there s a great deal of me to take care of and i know that nobody knows how to cure me when i m sick all they can do is to i the book i pay till i get well and can t	39
to our lines it is true that we see only out of our eyes and we are not very clever but still we are the only people to night who have not been afraid good night you brave people nobody answered and the troop horse said to change the conversation where s that little dog a dog means a man somewhere near here i am under the with my man you big beast her majesty s servants of a you you upset our tent my man s he must be very angry said tlie white of course he is said do you suppose i m looked after by a black h said the let us get away quickly they plunged forward in the mud and managed somehow to run their yoke on the pole of an wagon where it now you have done it said calmly don t struggle you re hung up till daylight what on earth s the matter the went off into the long hissing that indian cattle give and pushed and crowded and and stamped and slipped and nearly fell down in the mud savagely you break your necks in a minute said the troop horse what s the matter with white men i live with em they eat us pull said the near the yoke snapped with a and they off together i never knew before what made indian cattle so afraid of englishmen we eat beef a thing the book that no cattle driver touches and of course the cattle do not like it may i be with my own chains who d have thought of two big like those losing their heads said never mind i m going to look at this man most of the white men i know have things in their pockets said the troop horse i il leave you then i can t say i m of em myself besides white men who have n t a place to sleep in are more than likely to be thieves and i ve a good deal of government property on my back come along young and we go back to our lines good night see you on to morrow i suppose good night old h ay try to control your feelings won t you good night two tails if you pass us on the ground to morrow don t trumpet it spoils our formation the mule off with the limp of an old as the s head came into my breast and i gave him while who is a most conceited little dog told him about the scores of horses that she and i kept i m coming to the parade to morrow in my dog cart she said where will you be n her majesty s servants j on the left hand of the second i set the time for all my troop little lady he said politely now i must go back to dick my tail s all muddy and he i have two hours hard work dressing me for the parade the big parade of all the thirty thousand men was held that afternoon and and i had a good place close to the and the of with his high big black hat of wool and the great diamond star in the the first part of the review was all sunshine and the went by in wave upon wave of legs all moving together and guns all in a line till our eyes grew dizzy then the cavalry came up to the beautiful cavalry of and cocked her ear where she sat on the dog cart the second of the shot by and there was the troop horse his tail like spun silk his head pulled into his breast one ear forward and j one back setting the time for all his i his legs going as smoothly as music then the big guns came by and i saw two tails and two other in line to a siege gun while twenty yoke of oxen walked behind the seventh pair had a new yoke and they looked rather stiff and tired the book last came the screw guns and the mule carried himself as though he commanded all the troops and his harness was and polished till it winked i gave a cheer all by myself for the mule but he never looked right or left the rain began to fall again and for a while it was too misty to see what the troops were doing they had made a big half circle across the plain and were spreading out into a line that line grew and grew and grew till it was three quarters of a mile long from wing to wing one solid wall of men horses and guns then it came on straight toward the and the and as it got nearer the ground began to like the deck of a steamer when the engines are going fast unless you have been there you cannot imagine what a effect this steady come down of troops has on the spectators even when they know it is only a review i looked at the up till then he had not shown the shadow of a sign of astonishment or anything else but now his eyes began to get bigger and bigger and he picked up the reins on his horse s neck and looked behind him for a minute it seemed as though he were going to draw his d and his way out through the english i h i her majesty s servants men and women in the carriages at the back then the advance stopped dead the ground stood still the whole line saluted and thirty bands began to play all together that was the end of the review and the went off to their in the rain and an band struck up with	39
i am said the look and be afraid but at the bottom of his cold heart he was afraid he jumped up in the air and just under him by the head of in the dark he ran up against the i then was battered to and fro as a rat is shaken by a dog s wife to have a broken wing flew down the path with behind her it is all over was the best loved elephant in the service list of illustrations xiii he is afraid of me said little and he made lift up his feet one after the other he would get his torch and wave it and yell with the best u i j ot green corn protector of the poor said little little looked down upon scores and scores of broad backs to of the a had into my tent anybody can be forgiven for being scared in the night said the troop horse the man was lying on the ground and i stretched myself not to tread on him and he up at me n then i heard an old long haired central chief asking questions of a native officer the book now the brings home the night that the bat sets free the herds are shut in and hut for till dawn are we this is the hour of pride and power and and oh hear the call good hunting all that keep the law night song in the s brothers it was seven o clock of a very warm evening in the hills when father wolf woke up from his day s rest scratched himself yawned and spread out his one after the other to get rid of the sleepy feeling in the tips mother wolf lay with her big gray nose dropped across her four tumbling and the moon shone into the mouth of the cave where they all lived said father wolf it is time to hunt again and he was going to spring when a little shadow with a tail crossed the threshold and good luck go with you o chief of the wolves and good luck and strong white teeth go with the noble children the book that they may never forget the hungry in this world it was the the dish and the wolves of india despise because he runs about making mischief and telling tales and eating rags and pieces of leather from the village rubbish heaps they are afraid of him too because more than any one else in the is apt to go mad and then he forgets that he was ever afraid of any one and runs through the forest biting everything in his way even the tiger hides when little goes mad for madness is the most disgraceful thing that can overtake a wild creature we call it but they call it the madness and run enter then and look said father wolf stiffly but there is no food here for a wolf no said but for so mean a person as myself a dry bone is a good feast who are we the log the people to pick and choose he to the back of the cave where he found the bone of a buck with some meat on it and sat the end merrily all thanks for this good meal he said his lips how beautiful are the noble brothers how large are their eyes and so young too indeed indeed i might have remembered that the children of kings are men from the beginning now knew as well as any one else that there is nothing so unlucky as to compliment children to their faces and it pleased him to see mother and father wolf look uncomfortable sat still rejoicing in the mischief that he had made and then he said the big one has shifted his hunting grounds he will hunt among these hills during the next moon so he has told me was the tiger who lived near the river twenty miles away he has no right father wolf began angrily by the law of the he has no right to change his quarters without fair warning he will frighten every head of game within ten miles and i i have to kill for two these days his mother did not call him the lame one for nothing said mother wolf quietly he has been lame in one foot from his birth that is why he has only killed cattle now the villagers of the are angry with him and he has come here to make our villagers the book angry they will the for him when he is far away and we and our children must run when the grass is set alight indeed we are very grateful to shall i tell him of your gratitude said out snapped father wolf out and hunt with thy master thou hast done harm enough for one night i go said quietly ye can hear below in the i might have saved myself the message father wolf listened and in the dark valley that ran down to a little river he heard the dry angry of a tiger who has caught nothing and does not care if all the knows it i the fool said father wolf to begin a night s work with that noise does he think that buck are like his fat locks it is neither nor buck that he to night said mother wolf it is man the had changed to a sort of humming that seemed to roll from every quarter of the compass it was the noise that wood and sleeping in the open brothers and makes them run sometimes into the very mouth of the tiger man said father wolf showing all his white teeth are there not enough and in the that he must eat man and on our	39
he came naked by night alone and very hungry yet he was the book not afraid look he has pushed one of my to one side already and that lame butcher would have killed him and would have run off to the while the villagers here hunted through all our in revenge keep him assuredly i will keep him lie still little o thou for the i will call thee the time will come when thou wilt hunt as he has hunted thee but what will our pack say said father wolf the law of the lays down very clearly that any wolf may when he withdraw from the pack he belongs to but as soon as his are old enough to stand on their feet he must bring them to the pack council which is generally held once a month at full moon in order that the other wolves may identify them after that inspection the are free to run where they please and until they have killed their first buck no excuse is accepted if a grown wolf of the pack one of them the punishment is death where the murderer can be found and if you think for a minute you will see that this must be so father wolf waited till his could run a little and then on the night of the pack meeting brothers took them and and mother wolf to the council rock a covered with stones and where a hundred wolves could hide the great gray lone wolf who led all the pack by strength and cunning lay out at full length on his rock and below him sat forty or more wolves of every size and color from who could handle a buck alone to young black three year who thought they could the lone wolf had led them for a year now he had fallen twice into a wolf trap in his youth and once he had been beaten and left for dead so he knew the manners and customs of men there was very little talking at the rock the tumbled over one another in the of the circle where their mothers and fathers sat and now and again a senior wolf would go quietly up to a look at him carefully and return to his place on noiseless feet sometimes a mother would push her far out into the moonlight to be sure that he had not been overlooked from his rock would cry ye know the law ye know the law look well o wolves and the anxious mothers would take up the call look look well o wolves at last and mother wolf s neck lifted as the time came father wolf pushed the book the as they called him into the where he sat laughing and playing with some pebbles that in the moonlight never raised his head from his but went on with the monotonous cry look well a muffled roar came up from behind the rocks the voice of crying the is mine give him to me what have the free people to do with a man s never even pitched his ears all he said was look well o wolves what have the free people to do with the orders of any save the free people look well there was a chorus of deep and a young wolf in his fourth year flung back s question to what have the free people to do with a man s now the law of the lays down that if there is any dispute as to the right of a 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 who speaks for this said among the free people who speaks there was no answer and mother wolf got ready for what she knew would be her last fight if things came to fighting brothers then the only other creature who is allowed at the pack council the sleepy brown bear who teaches the wolf the law of the old who can come and go where he pleases because he eats only nuts and roots and honey rose up on his hind quarters and the man s the man s he said speak for the man s there is no harm in a man s 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 we need yet another said has spoken and he is our teacher for the young who speaks besides a black shadow dropped down into the circle it was the black black all over but with the showing up in certain lights like the pattern of watered silk everybody knew and nobody cared to cross his path for he was as cunning as as bold as the wild 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 o and ye the free people he i have no right in your assembly but the book the law of the says that if there is a doubt which is not a killing matter in regard to a new the life of that may be bought at a price and the law does not say who may or may not pay that price am i right good good said the young wolves who are always hungry listen to the can be bought for a price it is the law knowing that i have no right to speak here i ask your leave speak then cried twenty voices to kill a naked is shame besides he may make better sport for you when he is grown has spoken in his behalf now	39
to s word i will add one bull and a fat one newly killed not half a mile from here if ye will accept the man s according to the law is it difficult there was a of scores of voices saying what matter he will die in the winter rains he will in the sun what harm can a naked do us let him run with the pack where is the bull let him be accepted and then came s deep bay crying look well look well o wolves was still playing with the pebbles and he did not notice when the wolves came and brothers looked at him one by one at last they all went down the hill for the dead bull and only and s own wolves were left roared still in the night for he was very angry that had not been handed over to him ay roar well said under his whiskers for the time comes when this naked thing will make thee roar to another tune or i know nothing of man it was well done said men and their 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 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 and 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 one of the free people and that is how was entered into the wolf pack for the price of a bull and on s good word the book now you must be content to ten or eleven whole years and only guess at all the wonderful life that led among the wolves because if it were written out it would fill ever so many books he grew up with the 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 till every rustle in the grass every breath of the warm night air every note of the above his head every scratch of a bat s claws as it 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 told him that honey and nuts were just as pleasant to eat as raw meat he climbed up for it and that showed him how to do would lie out on a branch and call come along little brother and at first would cling like the but afterward he would fling himself through the branches almost as boldly as the gray he took his r s brothers 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 of his friends for wolves suffer terribly from thorns and in their coats he would go down the into the cultivated lands by night and look very curiously at the villagers in their huts but he had a of men because showed him a square box with a drop gate so hidden in the that he nearly walked into it and told him it was a trap he loved better than anything else to go with into the dark warm heart of the forest to sleep all through the drowsy day and at night see how did his killing killed right and left as he felt hungry and so did with one exception as soon as he was old enough to understand things told him that he must never touch cattle because he had been bought into the pack at the price of a bull s life all the is thine said and thou 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 the book any cattle young or old that is the law of the 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 except things to eat mother wolf told him once or twice that was not a creature to be trusted and that some day he must kill but though a young wolf would have remembered that advice every hour forgot it because he was only a boy though he would have called himself a wolf if he had been able to speak in any human tongue was always crossing his path in the for as grew older and the lame tiger had come to be great friends with the younger wolves of the pack who followed him for scraps a thing would never have allowed if he had dared to push his authority to the proper bounds then would flatter them and wonder that such fine young hunters were content to be led by a dying wolf and a man s they tell me would say that at council ye dare not look him between the eyes and the young wolves would growl and brothers who had eyes and ears everywhere knew something of this and once or twice he told in so	39
many words that would kill him some day and would laugh and answer i have the pack and i have thee and though he is so lazy might strike a blow or two for my sake why should i be afraid it was one very warm day that a new notion came to born of something that he had heard perhaps the had told him but he said to when they were deep in the as the boy lay with his head on s beautiful black skin little brother how often have i told thee that is thy enemy as many times as there are nuts on that palm said who naturally could not count what of it i am sleepy and is all long tail and loud talk like the but this is no time for sleeping knows it i know it the pack know it and even the foolish foolish deer know has told thee too ho ho said came to me not long ago with some rude talk that i was the book a naked man s and not fit to dig pig nuts but i caught by the tail and swung him twice against a palm tree to teach him better manners that was foolishness for though is a mischief maker he would have told thee of something that concerned thee closely open those eyes little brother dares not kill thee in the for fear of those that love thee but remember is very old and soon the day comes when he cannot kill his buck and then he will be leader ho more many of the wolves that looked thee over when thou brought to the council first are old too and the young wolves believe as has taught them that a man has no place with the pack in a little time thou wilt be a man and what is a man that he should not run with his brothers said i was born in the i i have obeyed the law of the and there is no wolf of ours from whose i have not pulled a thorn surely they are my brothers stretched himself at full length and half shut his eyes little brother said he feel under my jaw put up his strong brown hand and just under s chin where the giant s brothers rolling muscles were all hid by the glossy hair he came upon a little bald spot there is no one in the that knows that i carry that mark the mark of the collar and yet little brother i was born among men and it was among men that my mother died in the of the king s palace at it was because of this that i paid the price for thee at the council when thou a little naked yes i too was born among men i had never seen the they fed me behind bars from an iron pan till one night i felt that i was the and no man s and i broke the silly lock with one blow of my and came away and because i had learned the ways of men i became more terrible in the than is it not so yes said all the fear all except oh thou art a man s said the black very tenderly and even as i returned to my so thou must go back to men at last to the men who are thy brothers if thou art not killed in the council but why but why should any wish to kill me said the book look at me said and looked at him steadily between the eyes the big turned his head away in half a minute that is why he said shifting his on the leaves not 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 feet because thou art a man i did not know these things said sullenly and he frowned under his heavy black eyebrows what is the law of the 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 his next kill and at each hunt it costs him more to pin the buck the pack will turn against him and against thee they will hold a council at the rock and then and then i have it said leaping up go thou down quickly to the men s huts in the valley and take some of the red flower which they grow there so that when the time comes thou have even a m brothers stronger friend than i or or those of the pack that love thee get the red flower by red flower meant fire only no creature in the will call fire by its proper name every beast lives in deadly fear of it and a hundred ways of describing it the red flower said that grows outside their huts in the twilight i will get some there speaks the man s said proudly remember that it grows in little pots get one swiftly and keep it by thee for time of need good said i go but art thou sure o my he slipped his arm round the splendid neck and looked deep into the big eyes art thou sure that all this is s doing by the broken lock that freed me i am sure little brother then by the bull that bought me i will pay full tale for this and it may be a little over said and he bounded away that is a man that is all a man said to himself	39
lying down again oh never was a hunting than that hunt of thine ten years ago the book 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 were out but mother wolf at the back of the cave knew by his breathing that something was troubling her what is it son she said some bat s chatter of he called back i hunt among the fields tonight 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 of a hunted and the as the buck turned at bay then there were wicked bitter from the young wolves let the lone wolf show his strength room for the leader of our pack spring the lone wolf must have sprung and missed his hold for heard the snap of his teeth and then a as the knocked him over with his fore foot he did not wait for anything more but dashed on and the grew fainter behind him as he ran into the crop lands where the villagers lived spoke truth he panted as he brothers down in some cattle by the window of a hut to morrow is one day for and for me then he pressed his face close to the window and watched the fire on the hearth he saw the s wife get up and feed it in the night with black and when the morning came and the mists were all white and cold he saw the man s child pick up a pot inside with earth fill it with of red hot put it under his blanket and go out to tend the cows in the is that all said if a can do it there is nothing to fear so he strode around the corner and met the boy took the pot from his hand and disappeared into the mist while the boy howled with fear they are very like me said blowing into the pot as he had seen the woman do this thing will die if i do not give it things to eat and he dropped twigs and dried bark on the red stuff half way up the hill he met with the morning dew shining like on his coat has missed said the they would have killed him last night but they needed thee also they were looking for thee on the hill the book i was among the lands i am ready look held up the fire pot good now i have seen men thrust a dry branch into that stuff and presently the red flower at the end of it art thou not afraid no why should i fear i remember now if it is not a dream how before i was a wolf i lay beside the red flower and it was warm and pleasant all that day 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 came to the cave and told him rudely enough that he was wanted at the council rock he laughed till ran away then went to the council still laughing the lone wolf lay by the side of his rock as a sign that the of the pack was open and with his following of scrap fed wolves walked to and fro openly being flattered lay close to and the fire pot was between s knees when they were all gathered together began to speak a thing he would never have dared to do when was in his prime s brothers he has no right whispered say so he is a dogs son he will be frightened sprang to his feet free people he cried does lead the pack what has a tiger to do with our seeing that the is yet open and being asked to speak began by whom said are we all to on this cattle butcher the of the pack is with the pack alone there were of silence thou man s let him speak he has kept our law and at last the of the pack thundered let the dead wolf speak 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 as a rule raised his old head wearily free people and ye too of for twelve seasons i have led ye to and from the kill and in all that time not one has been or now i have missed my kill ye know how that plot was made ye know how ye brought me up to an 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 the book comes to make an end of the lone wolf for it is my right by the law of the that ye come one by one there was a long hush for no single wolf cared to fight to the death then roared what have we to do with this fool he is doomed to die it is the man 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 for ten seasons give me the man or i will hunt here always and not give you one bone he is a man a man s child and from the of my bones i hate him then more than half the pack a man a man what has a	39
things and that is why i hit him very softly when he forgets softly what dost thou know of softness old iron feet his face is all bruised to day by thy softness better he should be bruised from head to foot by me who love him than that he should come to harm through ignorance answered very earnestly i am now teaching him the master words of the that shall protect him with the birds and the and all that hunt on four feet except his own pack he can now claim protection if he will only remember the words from all in the is not that worth a little beating the book well look to it then that thou dost not kill the man he is no tree trunk to thy blunt claws upon but what are those master words i am more likely to give help than to ask it stretched out one and admired the steel blue at the end of it still i should like to know i will call and he shall say them if he will come little brother my head is ringing like a bee tree said a sullen voice over their heads and slid down a tree trunk very angry and indignant adding as he reached the ground i come for and not for thee fat old that is all one to me said though he was hurt and grieved tell then the master words of the that i have taught thee this day master words for which people said delighted to show off the has many tongues know them all a little thou but not much see o they never thank their teacher not one small has come back to thank old for his say the word for the hunting people then great scholar we be of one blood ye and i said s hunting giving the words the bear accent which all the hunting people of the use good now for the birds repeated with the s whistle at the end of the sentence now for the snake people said the answer was a perfectly indescribable hiss and kicked up his feet behind clapped his hands together to himself and jumped on s back where he sat sideways with his heels on the glossy skin and the worst faces that he could think of at there there that was worth a little said the brown bear tenderly some day thou wilt remember me then he turned aside to tell how he had begged the master words from the wild elephant who knows all about these things and how had taken down to a pool to get the snake word from a water snake because could not pronounce it and how was now reasonably safe against all accidents in the because neither snake bird nor beast would hurt him no one then is to be feared wound up patting his big stomach with pride the book except his own tribe said under his breath and then aloud to have a care for my ribs little brother what is all this dancing up and down had been trying to make himself heard by pulling at s shoulder fur and kicking hard when the two listened to him he was shouting at the top of his voice and so i shall have a tribe of my own and lead them through the branches all day long what is this new folly little of dreams said yes and throw branches and dirt at old went on they have promised me this ah s big off s back and as the boy lay between the big fore he could see the bear was angry said thou hast been talking with the log the monkey people looked at to see if the was angry too and s eyes were as hard as stones thou hast been with the monkey people the gray the people without a law the of every thing that is great shame s hunting when hurt my head said he was still down on his back i went away and the gray came down from the trees and had pity on me no one else cared he a little the pity of the monkey people the stillness of the mountain stream the cool of the summer sun and then man and then and then they gave me nuts and pleasant things to eat and they they carried me in their arms up to the top of the trees and said i was their blood brother except that i had no tail and should be their leader some day they have no leader said they lie they have always lied they were very kind and bade me come again why have i never been taken among the monkey people they stand on their feet as i do they do not hit me with hard they play all day let me get up bad let me up i will go play with them again listen man said the bear and his voice like thunder on a hot night i have taught thee all the law of the for all the of the except the monkey folk who live in the trees they have no law they the book are they have no speech of their own but use the stolen words which they when they listen and peep and wait up above in the branches their way is not our way they are without leaders they have no remembrance they boast and chatter and pretend that they are a great people about to do great affairs in the but the falling of a nut turns their minds to laughter and all is forgotten we of the have no dealings with them we do not drink where the drink we do not go where the go we do not hunt where they	39
blue the and as he kept watch over the waiting for things to die noticed that the were carrying something and dropped a few hundred yards to find out whether their load was good to eat he whistled with surprise when he saw being dragged up to a tree top and heard him give the call for we be of one blood thou and i the waves of the branches closed over the boy but balanced away to the next tree in time to see the little brown face come up again mark my trail shouted tell of the and the council rock in whose name brother had never seen before though of course he had heard of him the man they call me mark my il the last words were shrieked as he was being swung through the air but nodded and rose up till he looked no bigger than a speck of dust and there he hung watching with his eyes the swaying of the tree tops as s escort whirled along the book they never go far he said with a chuckle they never do what they set out to do always at new things are the log this time if i have any they have down trouble for themselves for is no and can as i know kill more than then he rocked on his wings his feet gathered up under him and waited meanwhile and were furious with rage and grief climbed as he had never climbed before but the branches broke beneath his weight and he slipped down his claws full of bark why thou not warn the man he roared to poor who had set off at a clumsy trot in the hope of the what was the use of half him with blows if thou not warn him haste o haste we we may catch them yet panted at that speed it would not tire a wounded cow teacher of the law a mile of that rolling to and fro would burst thee open sit still and think make a plan this is no time for chasing they may drop him if we follow too close s hunting they may have dropped him already being tired of carrying him who can trust the log put dead on my head give me black bones to eat roll me into the of the wild bees that i may be stung to death and bury me with the for i am the most miserable of bears a o why did i not warn thee against the monkey folk instead of breaking thy head now perhaps i may have knocked the day s lesson out of his mind and he will be alone in the without the master words clasped his over his ears and rolled to and fro moaning at least he gave me all the words correctly a little time ago said impatiently thou hast neither memory nor respect what would the think if i the black curled myself up like the and howled what do i care what the thinks he way be dead by now unless and until they drop him from the branches in sport or kill him out of idleness i have no fear for the man he is wise and well taught and above all he has the eyes that make the people afraid but and it is a r the book great evil he is in the power of the log and they because they live in trees have no fear of any of our people licked his one fore thoughtfully fool that i am oh fat brown root digging fool that i am said himself with a jerk it is true what the wild elephant says to each his own fear and they the log fear the rock snake he can climb as well as they can he the young in the night the mere whisper of his name makes their wicked tails cold let us go to what will he do for us he is not of our tribe being and with most evil eyes said he is very old and very cunning above all he is always hungry said promise him many he sleeps for a full month after he has once eaten he may be asleep now and even were he awake what if he would rather kill his own who did not know much about was naturally suspicious then in that case thou and i together old hunter may make him see reason here rubbed his faded brown shoulder against the s hunting and they went off to look for the rock they found him stretched out on a warm ledge in the afternoon sun admiring his beautiful new coat for he had been in retirement for the last ten days changing his skin and now he was very splendid darting his big blunt head along the ground and twisting the thirty feet of his body into fantastic knots and curves and his lips as he thought of his dinner to come he has not eaten said with a of relief as soon as he saw the beautifully brown and yellow jacket be careful he is always a little blind after he has changed his skin and very quick to strike was not a poison snake in fact he rather despised the poison for but his strength lay in his and when he had once his huge round anybody there was no more to be said good hunting cried sitting up on his like all of his breed was rather deaf and did not hear the call at first then he curled up ready for any accident his head lowered good hunting for us all he answered what dost thou do here good hunting one of us at least needs the book food is there any news of game a now or even a young buck i am	39
beasts seldom use a place that men have once used the wild will but the hunting tribes do not besides the lived there as much as they could be said to live anywhere and no self respecting animal would come within eye shot of it except in times of when the half ruined and held a little water it is half a night s journey at full speed said looked very serious will go as fast as i can he said anxiously we dare not wait for thee follow we must go on the quick foot and i feet or no feet i can keep abreast of all thy four said shortly made one effort to hurry but had to sit down panting and so they left him to come on later while hurried forward at the rocking said nothing but strive as might the huge rock held level with him when they came to a hill stream gained because he bounded across while swam his head and two feet of his the book neck clearing the water but on level ground made up the distance by the broken lock that freed me said when twilight had fallen thou art no slow i am hungry said besides they called me worm and yellow to boot all one let us go on and seemed to pour himself along the ground finding the shortest road with his steady eyes and keeping to it in the cold the monkey people were not thinking of s friends at all they had brought the boy to the lost city and were very pleased with themselves for the time had never seen an indian city before and though this was almost a heap of ruins it seemed very wonderful and splendid some king had built it long ago on a little hill you could still trace the stone that led up to the ruined gates where the last of wood hung to the worn hinges trees had grown into and out of the walls the were tumbled down and decayed and wild hung out of the windows of the towers on the walls in hanging i s hunting a great palace crowned the hill and the marble of the and the fountains was split and stained with red and green and the very in the where the king s used to live had been thrust up and apart by and young trees from the palace you could see the rows and rows of houses that made up the city looking like empty filled with blackness the block of stone that had been an idol in the square where four roads met the and at street corners where the public wells once stood and the shattered of temples with wild on their sides the called the place their city and pretended to despise the people because they lived in the forest and yet they never knew what the buildings were made for nor how to use them they would sit in circles on the hall of the king s council chamber and scratch for and pretend to be men or they would run in and out of the houses and collect pieces of plaster and old bricks in a corner and forget where they had hidden them and fight and cry in crowds and then break off to play up and down the of the king s garden where they would shake the rose trees and the book the in sport to see the fruit and flowers fall they all the passages and dark in the palace and the hundreds of little dark rooms but they never remembered what they had seen and what they had not and so drifted about in ones and or crowds telling one another that they were doing as men did they drank at the and made the water all muddy and then they fought over it and then they would all rush together in and shout there are none in the so wise and good and clever and strong and gentle as the then all would begin again till they grew tired of the city and went back to the tree tops hoping the people would notice them who had been trained under the law of the did not like or understand this kind of life the dragged him into the cold late in the afternoon and instead of going to sleep as would have done after a long journey they joined hands and danced about and sang their foolish songs one of the made a speech and told his companions that s capture marked a new thing in the history of the log for was going to show them how to sticks and together as a protection against s hunting rain and cold picked up some and began to work them in and out and the tried to imitate but in a very few minutes they lost interest and began to pull their friends tails or jump up and down on all i want to eat said i am a stranger in this part of the bring me food or give me leave to hunt here twenty or thirty bounded away to bring him nuts and wild but they fell to fighting on the road and it was too much trouble to go back with what was left of the fruit was sore and angry as well as hungry and he through the empty city giving the strangers hunting call from time to time but no one answered him and felt that he had reached a very bad place indeed all that has said about the log is true he thought to himself they have no law no hunting call and no leaders nothing but foolish words and little picking hands so if i am starved or killed here it will be all my own fault but i must try to return to my own will	39
surely beat me but that is better than chasing silly rose leaves with the log the book but no sooner had he walked to the city wall than the pulled him back telling him that he did not know how happy he was and him to make him grateful he set his teeth and said nothing but went with the shouting to a terrace above the red that were half full of rain water there was a ruined summer house of white marble in the of the terrace built for queens dead a hundred years ago the roof had half fallen in and blocked up the passage from the palace by which the queens used to enter but the walls were made of of marble beautiful set with and and and and as the moon came up behind the hill it shone through the casting shadows on the ground like black velvet sore sleepy and hungry as he was could not help laughing when the log began twenty at a time to tell him how great and wise and strong and gentle they were and how foolish he was to wish to leave them we are great we are free we are wonderful we are the most wonderful people in all the we all say so and so it must be true they s hunting shouted now as you are a new listener and can carry our words back to the people so that they may notice us in future we will tell you all about our most excellent selves made no objection and the gathered by hundreds and hundreds on the terrace to listen to their own singing the praises of the log and whenever a speaker stopped for want of breath they would all shout together this is true we all say so nodded and and said yes when they asked him a question and his head spun with the noise the must have bitten all these people he said to himself and now they have the madness certainly this is the madness do they never go to sleep now there is a cloud coming to cover that moon if it were only a big enough cloud i might try to run away in the darkness but i am tired that same cloud was being watched by two good friends in the ruined ditch below the city wall for and knowing well how dangerous the monkey people were in large numbers did not wish to run any risks the never fight unless they are a hundred to one and few in the care for those odds the book will go to the west wall whispered and come down swiftly with the slope of the ground in my favor they will not throw themselves upon my back in their hundreds but i know it said would that were here but we must do what we can when that cloud covers the moon i shall go to the terrace they hold some sort of council there over the boy good hunting said grimly and glided away to the west wall that happened to be the least ruined of any and the big snake was delayed a while before he could find a way up the stones the cloud hid the moon and as wondered what would come next he heard s light feet on the terrace the black had up the slope almost without a sound and was striking he knew better than to waste time in biting right and left among the who were seated round in circles fifty and sixty deep there was a howl of fright and rage and then as tripped on the rolling kicking bodies beneath him a monkey shouted there is only one here kill him kill a mass of biting scratching tearing and pulling closed over while s hunting five or six laid hold of dragged him up the wall of the summer house ar d pushed him through the hole of the broken dome a boy would have been badly bruised for the fall was a good ten feet but fell as had taught him to fall and landed light stay there shouted the till we have killed thy friend later we will play with thee if the poison people leave thee alive we be of one blood ye and i said quickly giving the snake s call he could hear rustling and hissing in the rubbish all round him and gave the call a second time to make sure down all said half a dozen low voices every old ruin in india becomes sooner or later a dwelling place of and the old summer house was alive with stand still little brother lest thy feet do us harm stood as quietly as he could peering through the and listening to the furious din of the fight round the black the and and and s deep hoarse cough as he backed and and twisted and plunged under the heaps of his enemies for the first time since he was born was fighting for his life must be at hand would not the book have come alone thought and then he called aloud to the roll to the water roll and plunge get to the water heard and the cry that told him was safe gave him new courage he worked his way desperately inch by inch straight for the in silence then from the ruined wall nearest the rose up the war shout of the old bear had done his best but he could not come before he shouted i am here i climb i haste the stones slip under my feet wait my coming o most infamous log he panted up the terrace only to disappear to the head in a wave of but he threw himself on his and spreading out his fore as many as he could hold and then began to hit	39
with a regular bat like the strokes of a a crash and a splash told that had fought his way to the where the could not follow the lay gasping for breath his head just out of water while the stood three deep on the red s hunting stone steps dancing up and down with rage ready to spring upon him from all sides if he came out to help it was then that lifted up his dripping chin and in despair gave the snake s call for protection we be of one blood ye and i for he believed that had turned tail at the last minute even half smothered under the on the edge of the terrace could not help as he heard the big black asking for help had only just worked his way over the west wall landing with a that a stone into the ditch he had no intention of losing any advantage of the ground and and himself once or twice to be sure that every foot of his long body was in working order all that while the fight with went on and the in the round and the bat flying to and fro carried the news of the great battle over the till even the wild elephant and far away scattered bands of the monkey folk woke and came leaping along the tree roads to help their comrades in the cold and the noise of the fight roused all the day birds for miles round the book then came straight quickly and anxious to kill the fighting strength of a is in the driving blow of his head backed by all the strength and weight of his body if you can imagine a lance or a ram or a hammer weighing nearly half a ton driven by a cool quiet mind living in the handle of it you can imagine roughly what was like when he fought a four or five feet long can knock a man down if he him fairly in the chest and was thirty feet long as you know his first stroke was delivered into the heart of the crowd round was sent home with shut mouth in silence and there was no need of a second the scattered with cries of it is run run generations of had been scared into good behavior by the stories their elders told them of the night thief who could slip along the branches as quietly as moss grows and steal away the strongest monkey that ever lived of old who could make himself look so like a dead branch or a rotten stump that the wisest were deceived till the branch caught them and then was everything that the feared in the for none of them knew the limits i s hunting of his power none of them could look him in the face and none had ever come alive out of his and so they ran with terror to the walls and the roofs of the houses and drew a deep breath of relief his fur was much thicker than s but he had suffered sorely in the fight then opened his mouth for the first time and spoke one long hissing word and the far away hurrying to the of the cold stayed where they were till the loaded branches bent and under them the on the walls and the empty houses stopped their cries and in the stillness that fell upon the city heard shaking his wet sides as he came up from the then the broke out again the leaped higher up the walls they clung round the necks of the big stone and shrieked as they along the while dancing in the summer house put his eye to the and between his front teeth to show his derision and contempt get the man out of that trap i can do no more gasped let us take the man and go they may attack again the book they will not move till i order them stay you and the city was silent once more i could not come before brother but i think i heard thee call this was to i i may have cried out in the battle answered art thou hurt i am not sure that they have not pulled me into a hundred little said gravely shaking one leg after the other i am sore we owe thee i think our lives and i no matter where is the here in a trap i cannot climb out cried the curve of the broken dome was above his head take him away he dances like the he will crush our young said the inside said with a chuckle he has friends everywhere this stand back and hide you o poison people i break down the wall looked carefully till he found a crack in the marble showing a weak spot made two or three light with his head to get the distance and then lifting up six feet of his body clear of the ground sent home half a dozen s hunting full power blows nose first the broke and fell away in a cloud of dust and rubbish and leaped through the opening and flung himself between and an arm round each big neck art thou hurt said him softly i am sore hungry and not a little bruised but oh they have handled ye my brothers ye others also said his lips and looking at the monkey dead on the terrace and round the it is nothing it is nothing if thou art safe o my pride of all little of that we shall judge later said in a dry voice that did not at all like but here is to whom we owe the battle and thou thy life thank him according to our customs turned and saw the great s head swaying	39
a foot above his own so this is the said very soft is his skin and he is not so unlike the log have a care that i do not mistake thee for a monkey some twilight when i have newly changed my coat the book we be of one blood thou and i answered i take my life from thee to night my kill shall be thy kill if ever thou art hungry o all thanks little brother said though his eyes and what may so bold a hunter i ask that i may follow when next he goes abroad i kill nothing i am too little but i drive toward such as can use them when thou art empty come to me and see if i speak the truth i have some in these he held out his hands and if ever thou art in a trap i may pay the debt which i owe to th ee to and to good hunting to ye all my masters well said growled for had returned thanks very prettily the dropped his head lightly for a minute on s shoulder a brave heart and a courteous tongue said he they shall carry thee far through the but now go hence quickly with thy friends go and sleep for the sets and what follows it is not well that see the moon was sinking behind the hills and the of trembling huddled together s hunting on the walls and looked like ragged of things went down to the for a drink and began to put his fur in order as glided out into the of the terrace and brought his jaws together with a ringing snap that drew all the eyes upon him the moon sets he said is there yet light to see from the walls came a moan like the wind in the tree tops we see o good begins now the dance the dance of the hunger of sit still and watch he turned twice or thrice in a big circle weaving his head from right to left then he began making and figures of eight with his body and soft that melted into squares and five sided figures and never resting never hurrying and never stopping his low humming song it grew darker and darker till at last the dragging shifting disappeared but they could hear the rustle of the scales and stood still as stone growling in their throats their neck hair and watched and wondered log said the voice of at last the book can ye stir foot or hand without my order speak without thy order we cannot stir foot or hand o good come all one pace nearer to me the lines of the swayed forward helplessly and and took one stiff step forward with them nearer and they all moved again laid his hands on and to get them away and the two great beasts started as though they had been from a dream keep thy hand on my shoulder whispered keep it there or i must go back must go back to a ah i it is only old making circles on the dust said let us go and the three slipped off through a gap in the walls to the said when he stood under the still trees again never more will i make an ally of and he shook himself all over he knows more than we said trembling in a little time had i stayed i should have walked down his throat s hunting many will walk that road before the moon rises again said he will have good hunting after his own fashion but what was the meaning of it all said who did not know anything of a s powers of fascination i saw no more than a big snake making foolish circles till the dark came and his nose was all sore ho ho said angrily his nose was sore on thy account as my ears and sides and and s neck and shoulders are bitten on thy account neither nor will be able to hunt with pleasure for many days it is nothing said we have the man again true but he has cost us most heavily in time which might have been spent in good hunting in wounds in hair i am half plucked along my back and last of all in honor for remember i who am the black was forced to call upon for protection and and i were both made stupid as little birds by the hunger dance all this man came of thy playing with the log true it is true said sorrowfully i am an evil man and my stomach is sad in me the book what says the law of the did not wish to bring into any more trouble but he could not with the law so he sorrow never stays punishment but remember he is very little i will remember but he has done mischief and blows must be dealt now hast thou anything to say nothing i did wrong and thou art wounded it is just gave him half a dozen love from a s point of view they would hardly have one of his own but for a seven year old boy they amounted to as severe a beating as you could wish to avoid when it was all over and picked himself up without a word now said jump on my back little brother and we will go home one of the beauties of law is that punishment settles all scores there is no afterward laid his head down on s back and slept so deeply that he never when he was put down by mother side in the home cave s hunting road song of the log here we go in a flung half way up to the jealous moon don t you envy	39
our bands don t you wish you had extra hands would n t you like if your tails were so curved in the shape of a s bow now you re angry but never mind brother thy tail hangs down behind here we sit in a row thinking of beautiful things we know dreaming of deeds that we mean to do all complete in a minute or two something noble and grand and good won by merely wishing we could now we re going to never mind brother thy tail hangs down behind all the talk we ever have heard uttered by bat or beast or bird hide or fin or scale or feather it quickly and all together excellent wonderful once again now we are talking just like men let s pretend we are never mind brother thy tail hangs down behind this is the way of the monkey kind then join our leaping lines that through the pines that by where light and high the wild by the rubbish in our wake and the noble noise we make be sure be sure we we going to do some splendid things r tiger tiger r what of the hunting hunter bold brother the watch was long and cold what of the ye went to kill brother he crops in the still where is the power that made your pride brother it from my flank and side where is the haste that ye hurry by brother i go to my to die tiger tiger now we must go back to the last tale but one when left the cave after the fight with the pack at the council rock he went down to the lands where the villagers lived but he would not stop there because it was too near to the and he knew that he had made at least one bad enemy at the council so he hurried on keeping to the rough road that ran down the valley and followed it at a steady trot for nearly twenty miles till he came to a country that he did not know the valley opened out into a great plain dotted the book over with rocks and cut up by at one end stood a little village and at the other the thick came down in a sweep to the grounds and stopped there as though it had been cut off with a all over the plain cattle and were and when the little boys in charge of the herds saw they shouted and ran away and the yellow dogs that hang about every indian village walked on for he was feeling hungry and when he came to the village gate he saw the big thorn bush that was drawn up before the gate at twilight pushed to one side he said for he had come across more than one such in his night ram r after things to eat u so men are afraid of the people of the here also he sat down by the gate and when a man came out he stood up opened his mouth and pointed down it to show that he wanted food the man stared and ran back up the one street of the village shouting for the priest who was a big fat man dressed in white with a red and yellow mark on his forehead the priest came to the gate and with him at least a hundred people who stared and talked and shouted and pointed at they have no manners these men folk tiger tiger said to himself only the gray would behave as they do so he threw back his long hair and frowned at the crowd what is there to be afraid of said the priest look at the marks on his arms and legs they are the of wolves he is but a wolf child run away from the of course in playing together the had often harder than they intended and there were white all over his arms and legs but he would have been the last person in the world to call these for he knew what real biting meant said two or three women together to be bitten by wolves poor child he is a handsome boy he has eyes like red fire by my honor he is not unlike thy boy that was taken by the tiger let me look said a woman with heavy copper rings on her wrists and ankles and she peered at under the palm of her hand indeed he is not he is thinner but he has the very look of my boy the priest was a clever man and he knew that was wife to the richest in the place so he looked up at the sky for a minute and said solemnly what the has taken the book the has restored take the boy into thy house my sister and forget not to honor the priest who sees so far into the lives of men by the bull that bought me said to himself but all this talking is like another looking over by the pack well if i am a man a man i must become the crowd parted as the woman beckoned to her hut where there was a red a great grain chest with curious raised patterns on it half a dozen copper cooking pots an image of a god in a little and on the wall a real looking glass such as they sell at the country she gave him a long drink of milk and some bread and then she laid her hand on his head and looked into his eyes for she thought perhaps that he might be her real son come back from the where the tiger had taken him so she said o did not show that he knew the name dost thou not remember the	39
face not to show that he was laughing while the tower across his knees climbed on from one wonderful story to another and s shoulders shook was explaining how the tiger that had carried away s son was a ghost tiger and his body was inhabited by the ghost of a wicked old money who had died some years ago and i know that this is true he said because always from the blow that he got in a riot when his account books were burned and the tiger that i speak of he too for the tracks of his are unequal true true that must be the truth said the nodding together the book are all these tales such and said that tiger because he was born lame as every one knows to talk of the soul of a money in a beast that never had the courage of a is child s talk was speechless with surprise for a moment and the head man stared it is the is it said if thou art so wise better bring his hide to for the government has set a hundred on his life better still do not talk when thy elders speak rose to go all the evening i have lain here listening he called back over his shoulder and except once or twice has not said one word of truth concerning the which is at his very doors how then shall i believe the tales of ghosts and gods and which he says he has seen it is full time that boy went to said the head man while puffed and at s impertinence the custom of most indian villages is for a few boys to take the cattle and out to in the early morning and bring them back at night and the very cattle that would a white man to death allow themselves to be r tiger tiger and and shouted at by children that hardly come up to their noses so long as the boys keep with the herds they are safe for not even the tiger will charge a mob of cattle but if they to pick flowers or hunt they are sometimes carried off went through the village street in the dawn sitting on the back of the great herd bull and the blue with their long backward sweeping horns and savage eyes rose out of their one by one and followed him and made it very clear to the children with him that he was the master he beat the with a long polished and told one of the boys to the cattle by themselves while he went on with the and to be very careful not to stray away from the herd an indian ground is all rocks and and and little among which the herds scatter and disappear the generally keep to the pools and muddy places where they lie or in the warm mud for hours drove them on to the edge of the plain where the river came out of the then he dropped from s neck trotted off to a and found gray brother ah said gray brother lo the book i have waited here very many days what is the meaning of this cattle work it is an order said i am a village herd for a while what news of he has come back to this country and has waited here a long time for thee now he has gone off again for the game is scarce but he means to kill thee very good said so long as he is away do thou or one of the sit on that rock so that i can see thee as i come out of the village when he comes back wait for me in the by the tree in the of the plain we need not walk into s mouth then picked out a shady place and lay down and slept while the round him in india is one of the things in the world the cattle move and and lie down and move on again and they do not even low they only and the very seldom say anything but get down into the muddy pools one after another and work their way into the mud till only their noses and staring china blue eyes show above the surface and there they lie like logs the sun makes the rocks tiger tiger dance in the heat and the herd children hear one never any more whistling almost out of sight overhead and they know that if they died or a cow died that would sweep down and the next miles away would see him drop and follow and the next and the next and almost before they were dead there would be a score of hungry come out of nowhere then they sleep and wake and sleep again and little baskets of dried grass and put in them or catch two praying man and make them fight or string a of red and black nuts or watch a on a rock or a snake hunting a near the then they sing long long songs with odd native at the end of them and the day seems longer than most people s whole lives and perhaps they make a mud castle with mud figures of men and horses and and put into the men s hands and pretend that they are kings and the figures are their armies or that they are gods to be then evening comes and the children call and the lumber up out of the mud with noises like going off one after the other and they all string across the gray plain back to the twinkling village lights no the book day after day would lead the out to their and day after day he would see gray brother s back a mile and a half away across the plain so he	39
knew that had not come back and day after day he would lie on the grass listening to the noise round him and dreaming of old days in the if had made a false step with his lame up in the by the would have heard him in those long still mornings at last a day came when he did not see gray tiger tiger in brother at the signal place and he laughed and headed the for the by the which was all covered with golden red flowers there sat gray brother every on his back lifted he has hidden for a month to throw thee off thy guard he crossed the last night with hot foot on thy trail said the wolf panting frowned i am not afraid of but is very cunning have no fear said gray brother his lips a little i met in the dawn now he is telling all his wisdom to the but he told me everything before i broke his back s plan is to wait for thee at the village gate this evening for thee and for no one else he is lying up now in the big dry of the has he eaten to day or does he hunt empty said for the answer meant life or death to him he killed at dawn a pig and he has drunk too remember could never fast even for the sake of revenge oh fool fool what a s it is eaten and drunk too and he thinks that i shall ua the book wait till he has slept now where does he lie up if there were but ten of us we might pull him down as he lies these will not charge unless they wind him and i cannot speak their language can we get behind his track so that they may smell it he swam far down the to cut that off said gray brother told him that i know he would never have thought of it alone stood with his finger in his mouth thinking the big of the that opens out on the plain not half a mile from here i can take the herd round through the to the head of the and then sweep down but he would out at the foot we must block that end c gray brother thou cut the herd in two for me not i perhaps but i have brought a wise gray brother trotted off and dropped into a hole then there lifted up a huge gray head that knew well and the hot air was filled with the most desolate cry of all the the hunting howl of a wolf at midday said clapping his hands i might have known that thou not forget me we have a big work in hand cut the herd in two keep the cows and tiger tiger together and the and the by themselves the two wolves ran ladies chain fashion in and out of the herd which and threw up its head and separated into two in one the cow stood with their in the and glared and ready if a wolf would only stay still to charge down and the life out of him in the other the and the young and stamped but though they looked more imposing they were much less dangerous for they had no to protect no six men could have divided the herd so neatly what orders panted they are trying to join again slipped on to s back drive the away to the left gray brother when we are gone hold the cows together and drive them into the foot of the how far said gray brother panting and snapping till sides are higher than can jump shouted keep them there till we come down the swept off as and gray brother stopped in front of the cows they charged down on him and the book he ran just before them to the foot of the as drove the far to the left well done another charge and they are fairly started careful now careful a snap too much and the will charge i this is work than driving thou think these creatures could move so swiftly called i have have hunted these too in my time gasped in the dust shall i turn them into the ay turn swiftly turn them is mad with rage oh if i could only tell him what i need of him to day the were turned to the right this time and into the standing thicket the other herd children watching with the cattle half a mile away hurried to the village as fast as their legs could carry them crying that the had gone mad and run away but s plan was simple enough all he wanted to do was to make a big circle and get at the head of the and then take the down it and catch between the and the cows for he knew that after a meal and a full drink would not be in any condition to fight or to up the tiger tiger sides of the he was soothing the now by voice and had dropped far to the rear only once or twice to hurry the rear guard it was a long long circle for they did not wish to get too near the and give warning at last rounded up the bewildered herd at the head of the on a grassy patch that down to the itself from that height you could see across the tops of the trees down to the plain below but what looked at was the sides of the and he saw with a great deal of satisfaction that they ran nearly straight up and down and the vines and that hung over them would give no to a tiger who wanted to get out	39
let them breathe he said holding up his hand they have not him yet let them breathe i must tell who comes we have him in the trap he put his hands to his mouth and shouted down the it was almost like shouting down a and the echoes jumped from rock to rock after a long time there came back the sleepy of a full fed tiger just awakened ii the book who calls said and a splendid fluttered up out of the i cattle thief it is time to come to the council rock down hurry them down down down the herd paused for an instant at the edge of the slope but gave tongue in the full hunting yell and they pitched over one after the other just as shoot the sand and stones up round them once started there was no chance of stopping and before they were fairly in the bed of the and ha ha said on his back now thou and the torrent of black horns foaming and staring eyes whirled down the like in flood time the weaker being shouldered out to the sides of the where they tore through the they knew what the business was before them the terrible charge of the herd against which no tiger can hope to stand heard the thunder of their hoofs picked himself up and down the looking from side to side for some way of escape but the walls of the were straight and he had to tiger tiger keep on heavy with his dinner and his drink willing to do anything rather than fight the herd through the pool he had just left till the narrow cut rang heard an answering from the foot of the saw turn the tiger knew if the worst came to the worst it was better to meet the than the cows with their and then tripped stumbled and went on again over something soft and with the at his heels full into the other herd while the weaker were lifted clean off their feet by the shock of the meeting that charge carried both herds out into the plain and stamping and watched his time and slipped off s neck laying about him right and left with his stick quick break them up scatter them or they will be fighting one another drive them away hai y hai hai hai my children softly now softly it is all over and gray brother ran to and fro the legs and though the herd wheeled to charge up the again managed to turn and the others followed him to the n the book needed no more he was dead and the were coming for him already brothers that was a dog s death said feeling for the knife he always carried in a round his neck now that he lived with men but he would never have shown fight his hide will look well on the council rock we must get to work swiftly a boy trained among men would never have dreamed of a ten foot tiger alone but knew better than any one else how an animal s skin is fitted on and how it can be taken off but it was hard work and and tore and for an hour while the wolves out their tongues or came forward and as he ordered them presently a hand fell on his shoulder and looking up he saw with the tower the children had told the village about the and went out angrily only too anxious to correct for not taking better care of the herd the wolves dropped out of sight as soon as they saw the man coming what is this folly said angrily to think that thou skin a tiger where did the kill him it is the lame tiger tiger i tiger i too and there is a hundred on his head well well we will overlook thy letting the herd run off and perhaps i will give thee one of the of the reward when i have taken the skin to he in his waist cloth for flint and steel and stooped down to s whiskers most native hunters a tiger s whiskers to prevent his ghost haunting them hum said half to himself as he back the skin of a fore so thou wilt take the hide to for the reward and perhaps give me one now it is in my mind that i need the skin for my own use old man take away that fire what talk is this to the chief hunter of the village thy luck and the stupidity of thy have helped thee to this kill the tiger has just fed or he would have gone twenty miles by this time thou not even skin him properly little beggar and i must be told not to his whiskers i will not give thee one of the reward but only a very big beating leave the by the bull that bought me said who was trying to get at the shoulder must i the book stay to an old all noon here this man me who was still stooping over s head found himself on the grass with a gray wolf standing over him while went on as though he were alone in all india ye es he said between his teeth thou art altogether right thou wilt never give me one of the reward there is an old war between this lame tiger and myself a very old war and i have won to do justice if he had been ten years younger he would have taken his chance with had he met the wolf in the woods but a wolf who obeyed the orders of this boy who had private wars with man eating was not a common animal it was magic of the worst kind thought and he	39
itself and he shouted it aloud leaping up and down on the rattling skin and beating time with his heels till he had no more breath left while gray brother and howled between the verses look well o wolves have i kept my word said when he had finished and the wolves yes and one tattered wolf howled lead us again o lead us again o man for we be sick of this and we would be the free people once more nay that may not be when ye are full fed the madness may come upon ye again not for nothing are ye called the free people ye fought for freedom and it is yours eat it o wolves man pack and wolf pack have cast me out said now i will hunt alone in the and we will hunt with thee said the four tiger tiger so went away and hunted with the four in the from that day on but he was not always alone because years afterward he became a man and married but that is a story for grown song that he sang at the council rock when he danced on s hide the song of i am singing let the listen to the things i have done said he would kill would kill at the gates in the twilight he would kill the he ate and he drank drink deep for when wilt thou drink again sleep and dream of the kill i am alone on the grounds gray brother come to me come to me lone wolf for there is big game bring up the great bull the blue herd with the angry eyes drive them to and fro as i order thou still wake o wake here come i and the are behind the book the king of the stamped with his foot waters of the whither went he is not to dig holes nor the that he should fly he is not the bat to hang in the branches little that together tell me where he ran ow he is there he is there under the feet of lies the lame one up up and kill here is meat break the necks of the he is asleep we will not wake him for his strength is very great the have come down to see it the black have come up to know it there is a great assembly in his honor i have no cloth to wrap me the will see that i am naked i am ashamed to meet all these people lend me thy coat lend me thy gay striped coat that i may go to the council rock by the bull that bought me i have made a promise a little promise only thy coat is lacking before i keep my word with the knife with the knife that men use with the knife of the hunter the man i will stoop down for my gift waters of the bear witness that gives me his coat for the love that he bears me pull gray brother pull heavy is the hide of tiger tiger the man pack are angry they throw stones and talk child s talk my mouth is bleeding let us run away through the night through the hot night run swiftly with me my brothers we will leave the lights of the village and go to the low moon waters of the the man pack have cast me out i did them no harm but they were afraid of me why wolf pack ye have cast me out too the is shut to me and the village gates are shut why as flies between the beasts and the birds so fly i between the village and the why i dance on the hide of but my heart is very heavy my mouth is cut and wounded with the stones from the village but my heart is very light because i have come back to the why these two things fight together in me as the fight in the spring the water comes out of my eyes yet i laugh while it falls why i am two but the hide of is under my feet all the knows that i have killed look look well o wolves my heart is heavy with the things that i do not understand the white seal oh hush thee my baby the night is behind us and black are the waters that sparkled so green the moon o er the looks downward to find us at rest in the hollows that rustle between where meets there soft be thy pillow ah weary curl at thy ease the storm shall not wake thee nor overtake thee asleep in the arms of the slow swinging seas seal the white seal all these things happened several years ago l at a place called or north east point on the island of st paul away and away in the sea the winter told me the tale when he was blown on to the of a steamer going to and i took him down into my cabin and warmed and fed him for a couple of days till he was fit to fly back to st paul s again is a very odd little bird but he knows how to tell the truth nobody comes to except on business and the only people who have regular the book business there are the they come in the summer months by hundreds and hundreds of thousands out of the cold gray sea for beach has the finest accommodation for of any place in all the world sea catch knew that and every spring would swim from whatever place he happened to be in would swim like a boat straight for and spend a month fighting with his companions for a good place on the rocks as close to the sea	39
in the took no notice of them and the kept to their own grounds so the babies had a beautiful when came back from her deep sea fishing she would go straight to their and call as a sheep calls for a lamb and wait until she heard then she would take the of straight lines in his direction striking out with her fore and knocking the head over heels right and left there were always a few hundred mothers hunting for their children through the and the babies were kept lively but as told so long as you don t lie in muddy water and get or rub the hard sand into a cut or scratch and so long as you never go swimming when there is a heavy sea nothing will hurt you here little can no more swim than little children but they are unhappy till they learn the first time that went down to the sea a wave carried him out beyond his depth and his the book big head sank and his little hind flew up exactly as his mother had told him in the song and if the next wave had not thrown him back again he would have drowned after that he learned to lie in a beach pool and let the wash of the waves just cover him and lift him up while he but he always kept his eye open for big waves that might hurt he was two weeks learning to use his and all that while he in and out of the water and and and crawled up the beach and took cat on the sand and went back again until at last he found that he truly belonged to the water then you can imagine the times that he had with his companions under the or coming in on top of a and landing with a and a as the big wave went whirling far up the beach or standing up on his tail and scratching his head as the old people did or playing i m the king of the castle on slippery rocks that just stuck out of the wash now and then he would see a thin fin like a big s fin drifting along close to shore and he knew that that was the whale the who eats young when he can get them and would head for the beach like an the white seal arrow and the fin would off slowly as if it were looking for nothing at all late in october the began to leave st paul s for the deep sea by families and tribes and there was no more fighting over the and the played anywhere they liked next year said to you will be a but this year you must learn how to catch fish they set out together across the pacific and showed how to sleep on his back with his tucked down by his side and his little nose just out of the water no cradle is so comfortable as the long rocking swell of the pacific when felt his skin all over told him he was learning the feel of the water and that feelings meant bad weather coming and he must swim hard and get away in a little time she said you know where to swim to but just now we follow sea pig the for he is very wise a school of were and tearing through the water and little followed them as fast as he could how do you know where to go to he panted the leader of the school rolled his white eyes and under my tail the book ten i he said that means there s a gale behind me come along when you of the water he meant the and your tail that means there s a gale in front of you and north come along the water feels bad here this was one of very many things that learned and he was always learning taught him how to follow the and the along the under sea banks and the out of his hole among the weeds how to skirt the lying below water and dart like a rifle bullet in at one and out at another the white seal as the fishes ran how to dance on the top of the waves when the lightning was racing all over the sky and wave his politely to the and the man of war hawk as they went down the wind how to jump three or four feet clear of the water like a close to the side and tail curved to leave the flying fish alone because they are all bony to take the shoulder piece out of a at full speed ten deep and never to stop and look at a boat or a ship but particularly a row boat at the end of six months what did not know about deep sea fishing was not worth the knowing and all that time he never set on dry ground one day however as he was lying half asleep in the warm water somewhere off the island of he felt faint and lazy all over just as human people do when the spring is in their legs and he remembered the good firm of seven thousand miles away the games his companions played the smell of the the seal roar and the fighting that very minute he turned north swimming steadily and as he went on he met scores of his mates all bound for the same place and they said greeting this year the book we are all and we can dance the fire dance in the off and play on the new grass but where did you get that coat s fur was almost pure white now and though he felt very proud of it he only said swim quickly my bones are aching for	39
the land and so they all came to the where they had been born and heard the old their fathers fighting in the rolling mist that night danced the fire dance with the the sea is full of fire on summer nights all the way down from to and each seal leaves a wake like burning oil behind him and a flaming flash when he and the waves break in great streaks and then they went inland to the grounds and rolled up and down in the new wild wheat and told stories of what they had done while they had been at sea they talked about the pacific as boys would talk about a wood that they had been in and if any one had understood them he could have gone away and made such a of that as never was the four year old down from s hill crying out of the way the white seal the sea is deep and you don t know all that s in it yet wait till you ve rounded the horn hi you where did you get that white coat i did n t get it said it grew and just as he was going to roll the speaker over a couple of black haired men with flat red faces came from behind a sand and who had never seen a man before and lowered his head the just off a few yards and sat staring the men were no less than the chief of the seal hunters on the island and his son they came from the little village not half a mile from the seal and they were deciding what they would drive up to the killing pens for the were driven just like sheep to be turned into later on ho said look there s a white seal turned nearly white under his oil and smoke for he was an and are not clean people then he began to a prayer don t touch him there has never been a white seal since i was born perhaps it is old ghost he was lost last year in the big gale the book i m not going near him said he s unlucky do you really think he is old come back i owe him for some eggs don t look at him said head off that drove of four year the men ought to skin two hundred to day but it s the beginning of the season and they are new to the work a hundred will do quick rattled a pair of seal s in front of a herd of and they stopped dead puffing and blowing then he stepped near and the began to move and headed them inland and they never tried to get back to their companions hundreds and hundreds of thousands of watched them being driven but they went on playing just the same was the only one who asked questions and none of his companions could tell him anything except that the men always drove in that way for six weeks or two months of every year i am going to follow he said and his eyes nearly out of his head as he along in the wake of the herd the white seal is coming after us cried that s the first time a seal has ever come to the killing grounds alone the white seal don t look behind you said it is s ghost i must speak to the priest about this the distance to the killing grounds was only half a mile but it took an hour to cover because if the went too fast knew that they would get heated and then their fur would come off in patches when they were so they went on very slowly past sea lion s neck past house till they came to the salt house just beyond the sight of the on the beach followed panting and wondering he thought that he was at the world s end but the roar of the seal behind him sounded as loud as the roar of a train in a then sat down on the moss and pulled out a heavy watch and let the drove cool off for thirty minutes and could hear the dripping from the brim of his cap then ten or twelve men each with an iron bound club three or four feet long came up and pointed out one or two of the drove that were bitten by their companions or were too hot and the men kicked those aside with their heavy boots made of the skin of a s throat and then said let go and then the men the on the head as fast as they could the book ten minutes later little did not his friends any more for their skins were off from the nose to the hind whipped off and thrown down on the ground in a pile that was enough for he turned and galloped a seal can gallop very swiftly for a short time back to the sea his new with horror at sea lion s neck where the great sea lions sit on the edge of the surf he flung himself over head into the cool water and rocked there gasping miserably what s here said a sea lion for as a rule the sea lions keep themselves to themselves i m very said they re killing all the on all the the sea lion turned his head nonsense he said your friends are making as much noise as ever you must have seen old off a drove he s done that for thirty years it s horrible said water as a wave went over him and himself with a screw stroke of his that brought him up all standing within three inches of a jagged edge of rock the white seal well done for a said	39
there had once been a seal nursery and it was so in all the other islands that he visited gave a long list of them for he said that spent five seasons exploring with a four months rest each year at where the used to make fun of him and his imaginary islands he went to the a horrid dry place on the where he was nearly baked to death he went to the islands the island little island s island s island the and even to a little speck of an island south of the cape of good hope but everywhere the people of the sea told him the same things had come to those islands once upon a time but men had killed them all off even when he swam thousands of miles out of the pacific and got to a place called cape that was when he the white seal was coming back from s island he found a few hundred on a rock and they told him that men came there too that nearly broke his heart and he headed round the horn back to his own and on his way north he hauled out on an island full of green trees where he found an old old seal who was dying and caught fish for him and told him all his sorrows now said i am going back to and if i am driven to the killing pens with the i shall not care the old seal said try once more i am the last of the lost of and in the days when men killed us by the hundred thousand there was a story on the that some day a white seal would come out of the north and lead the seal people to a quiet place i am old and i shall never live to see that day but others will try once more and curled up his it was a beauty and said i am the only white seal that has ever been born on the and i am the only seal black or white who ever thought of looking for new islands that cheered him immensely and when he came back to that summer mat the book his mother begged him to marry and settle down for he was no longer a but a full grown sea catch with a curly white mane on his shoulders as heavy as big and as fierce as his father give me another season he said remember mother it is always the seventh wave that goes farthest up the beach curiously enough there was another seal who thought that she would put off marrying till the next year and danced the fire dance with her all down beach the night before he set off on his last this time he went westward because he had fallen on the trail of a great of and he needed at least one hundred pounds of fish a day to keep him in good condition he chased them till he was tired and then he curled himself up and went to sleep on the hollows of the ground swell that sets in to copper island he knew the coast perfectly well so about midnight when he felt himself gently on a weed bed he said hm tide s running strong tonight and turning over under water opened his eyes slowly and stretched then he jumped like a cat for he saw huge things about in the water and on the heavy of the weeds the white seal by the great of he said beneath his who in the deep sea are these people they were like no sea lion seal bear whale fish or that had ever seen before they were between twenty and thirty feet long and they had no hind but a like tail that looked as if it had been out of wet leather their heads were the most foolish looking things you ever saw and they balanced on the ends of their tails in deep water when they were n t bowing solemnly to one another and waving their front as a fat man waves his arm said good sport gentlemen the big things answered by bowing and waving their like the footman when they began feeding again saw that their upper lip was split into two pieces that they could apart about a foot and bring together again with a whole of between the they tucked the stuff into their mouths and solemnly style of feeding that said they bowed again and began to lose his temper very good he said if you do happen to have an extra joint in your front ix the book you need n t show off so i see you bow gracefully but i should like to know your names the split lips moved and and the green eyes stared but they did not speak well said you re the only people he had found sea cow at last i ve ever met than sea and with worse manners then he remembered in a flash what the had screamed to him when he was a little at and he tumbled backward in the water for he knew that he had found sea cow at last the sea cows went on and and in the weed and asked the white seal them questions in every language that he had picked up in his travels and the sea people talk nearly as many languages as human beings but the sea cow did not answer because sea cow cannot talk he has only six bones in his neck where he ought to have seven and they say under the sea that that prevents him from speaking even to his companions but as you know he has an extra joint in his fore and by waving it up and down and about he makes what answers to a sort of clumsy	39
code by daylight s mane was standing on end and his temper was gone where the dead go then the sea cow began to travel northward very slowly stopping to hold absurd bowing from time to time and followed them saying to himself people who are such as these are would have been killed long ago if they had n t found out some safe island and what is good enough for the sea cow is good enough for the sea catch all the same i wish they d hurry it was weary work for the herd never went more than forty or fifty miles a day and stopped to feed at night and kept close to the shore all the time while swam round them and over them and under them but he the book could not hurry them up one half mile as they went farther north they held a bowing council every few hours and nearly bit off his with impatience till he saw that they were following up a warm current of water and then he respected them more one night they sank through the shiny water sank like stones and for the first time since he had known them began to swim quickly followed and the pace astonished him for he never dreamed that sea cow was anything of a they headed for a cliff by the shore a cliff that ran down into deep water and plunged into a dark hole at the foot of it twenty under the sea it was a long long swim and badly wanted fresh air before he was out of the dark they led him through my wig he said when he rose gasping and puffing into open water at the farther end it was a long but it was worth it the sea cows had separated and were lazily along the edges of the finest that had ever seen there were long stretches of smooth worn rock running for miles exactly fitted to make seal and there were of hard sand sloping inland behind them and there were for to the white seal dance in and long grass to roll in and to climb up and down and best of all knew by the feel of the water which never a true sea catch that no men had ever come there the first thing he did was to assure himself that the fishing was good and then he swam along the and counted up the delightful low sandy islands half hidden in the beautiful rolling fog away to the northward out to sea ran a line of bars and and rocks that would never let a ship come within six miles of the beach and between the islands and the was a stretch of deep water that ran up to the perpendicular cliffs and somewhere below the cliffs was the mouth of the it s over again but ten times better said sea cow must be wiser than i thought men can t come down the cliffs even if there were any men and the to would knock a ship to if any place in the sea is safe this is it he began to think of the seal he had left behind him but though he was in a hurry to go back to he thoroughly the new country so that he would be able to answer all questions the book then he and made sure of the mouth of the and through to the southward no one but a sea cow or a seal would have dreamed of there being such a place and when he looked back at the cliffs even could hardly believe that he had been under them he was six days going home though he was not swimming slowly and when he hauled out just above sea lion s neck the first person he met was the seal who had been waiting for him and she saw by the look in his eyes that he had found his island at last but the and sea catch his father and all the other laughed at him when he told them what he had discovered and a young seal about his own age said this is all very well but you can t come from no one knows where and order us off like this remember we ve been fighting for our and that s a thing you never did you preferred about in the sea the other laughed at this and the young seal began twisting his head from side to side he had just married that year and was making a great fuss about it i ve no nursery to fight for said i want only to show you all a place where you will be safe what s the use of fighting the white seal oh if you re trying to back out of course i ve no more to say said the young seal with an ugly chuckle will you come with me if i win said and a green light came into his eyes for he was very angry at having to fight at all very good said the young seal carelessly if you win i come he had no time to change his mind for s head darted out and his teeth sunk in the of the young seal s neck then he threw himself back on his and hauled his enemy down the beach shook him and knocked him over then roared to the i ve done my best for you these five seasons past i ve found you the island where you be safe but unless your heads are dragged off your silly necks you won t believe i m going to teach you now look out for yourselves told me that never in his life and sees ten thousand big fighting every year never in all his little life did	39
he see anything like s charge into the he flung himself at the biggest he could find caught him by the throat choked him and him and him till he for mercy and then threw him aside and attacked the next you see had the book never for four months as the big did every year and his deep sea swimming kept him in perfect condition and best of all he had never fought before his curly white mane stood up with rage and his eyes and his big and he was splendid to look at old sea catch his father saw him tearing past the old about as though they had been and the young in all directions and sea catch gave one roar and shouted he may be a fool but he is the best on the don t tackle your father my son he s with you roared in answer and old sea catch in his on end blowing like a while and the seal that was going to marry down and admired their men folk it was a gorgeous fight for the two fought as long as there was a seal that dared lift up his head and then they up and down the beach side by side at night just as the northern lights were and flashing through the fog climbed a bare rock and looked down on the scattered and the torn and bleeding now he said i ve taught you your lesson the white seal my wig said old sea catch himself up stiffly for he was fearfully the whale himself could not have cut them up worse son i m proud of you and what s more come with you to your island if there is such a place hear you fat pigs of the sea who comes with me to the sea cow s answer or i shall teach you again roared there was a murmur like the ripple of the tide all up and down the we will come said thousands of tired voices we will follow the white seal then dropped his head between his shoulders and shut his eyes proudly he was not a white seal any more but red from head to tail all the same he would have scorned to look at or touch one of his wounds a week later he and his army nearly ten thousand and old went away north to the sea cow s leading them and the that stayed at called them but next spring when they all met off the fishing banks of the pacific s told such tales of the new beyond sea cow s that more and more left the book of course it was not all done at once for the need a long time to turn things over in their minds but year by year more went away from and and the other to the quiet sheltered where sits all the summer through getting bigger and and stronger each year while the play round him in that sea where no man comes this is the great deep sea song that all the st paul sing when they are heading back to their in the summer it is a sort of very sad seal national i met my mates in the morning and oh but i am old where roaring on the the summer ground swell rolled i heard them lift the chorus that dropped the song the of two million voices strong the song of pleasant stations beside the salt the song of blowing that down the the song of midnight dances that the sea to flame the of before the came the white seal i met my mates in the morning i never meet them more they came and went in that darkened all the shore and through the as far as voice could reach we hailed the landing parties and we sang them up the beach the of the winter wheat so tall the dripping and the sea fog all i the of our all shining smooth and worn the of the home where we were born i meet my mates in the morning a broken scattered band men shoot us in the water and club us on the land men drive us to the salt house like silly sheep and tame and still we sing before the came wheel down wheel down to southward oh go i and tell the deep sea the story of our woe ere empty as the s egg the tempest ashore the of shall know their sons no more i i at the hole where he went in red eye called to skin hear what little red eye come up and dance with death eye to eye and head to head keep the measure this shall end when one is dead at thy pleasure turn for turn and twist for twist run and hide thee the death has missed i woe thee this is the story of the great war that fought single handed through the bath rooms of the big in the tailor bird helped him and the who never comes out into the middle of the floor but always round by the wall gave him advice but did the real fighting he was a rather like a little cat in his fur and his tail but quite like a in his head and his habits his eyes and the end of his restless nose were pink he could scratch himself anywhere he pleased with any leg front or back that he chose to use he could up his tail till it looked like a bottle brush and his the book war cry as he through the long grass was i one day a high summer flood washed him out of the where he lived with his father and mother and carried him kicking and down	39
a roadside ditch he found a little of grass floating there and clung to it till he lost his senses when he revived he was lying in the hot sun on the middle of a garden path very indeed and a small boy was saying here s a dead let s have a funeral no said his mother let s take him in and dry him perhaps he is n t really dead they took him into the house and a big man picked him up between his finger and thumb and said he was not dead but half choked so they wrapped him in cotton wool and warmed him and he opened his eyes and now said the big man he was an englishman who had just moved into the don t frighten him and we see what he do it is the hardest thing in the world to frighten a because he is eaten up from nose to tail with curiosity the motto of all the family is run and find out and was a true he looked at the he climbed up in the big man s lap to see how writing was done at nightfall he ran into s nursery to watch how lamps were lighted and when went to bed climbed up too but he was a restless companion because he had to get up and attend to every noise all through the night and find out what made it s mother and father came in the last thing to look at their boy and was awake on the pillow i don t like that said s mother he may bite the child he ii do no such thing said the father s safer with that little beast than if he had a to watch him if a snake came into the nursery now iso the book but s mother would n t think of anything so awful early in the morning came to early breakfast in the riding on s shoulder and they gave him and some boiled egg and he sat on all their one after the other because every well brought up always hopes to be a house some day and have rooms to run about in she used to live in the general s house at had carefully s told what to do if ever he came across white men then went out into the garden to see what was to be seen it was a large garden only half cultivated with bushes as big as summer houses of roses lime and orange trees of and of high grass licked his lips this breakfast is a splendid hunting ground he said and his tail grew bottle at the thought of it and he up and down the garden here and there till he heard very sorrowful voices in a thorn bush very miserable said it was the tailor bird and his wife they had made a beautiful nest by pulling two big leaves together and them up the edges with and had filled the hollow with s the book cotton and the nest swayed to and fro as they sat on the rim and cried what is the matter asked we are very miserable said one of our babies fell out of the nest yesterday and ate him h m said that is very sad but i am a stranger here who is and his wife only down in the j nest without answering for from the thick grass at the foot of the bush there came a low hiss a horrid cold sound that made jump j back two clear feet then inch by inch out of the grass rose up the head and spread hood of j the big black and he was five feet long from tongue to tail when he had lifted one third of himself clear of the ground he stayed j to and fro exactly as a in the wind and he looked at with the wicked snake s eyes that never change their expression whatever the snake may be thinking of j who is he said am the great god put his mark upon all our people when the first spread his hood to i keep the sun off as he slept look and be afraid k j l t r he spread out his hood more than ever and saw the spectacle mark on the back of it that looks exactly like the eye part of a hook and eye he was afraid for the minute but it is impossible for a to stay frightened for any length of time and though had never met a live before his mother had fed him on dead ones and he knew that all a grown s business in life was l to fight and eat knew that too and at the bottom of his cold heart he was afraid well said and his tail began to up again marks or no marks do you think it is right for you to eat out of a nest was thinking to himself and watching the least little movement in the grass behind he knew that in the garden meant death sooner or later for him and his family but he wanted to get off his guard so he dropped his head a little and put it on one side let us talk he said you eat eggs why should not i eat birds behind you look behind you sang knew better than to waste time in the book staring he jumped up in the air as high as he could go and just under him by the head of wicked wife she had crept up behind him as he was talking to make an end of him and he heard her savage hiss as the stroke missed he came down almost across her back and if he had been an old	39
quick or i bite you sat down and cried till the tears rolled off his whiskers i am a very poor man he sobbed i never had spirit enough to run out into the middle of the room h sh i must n t tell you anything can t you hear the book listened the house was as still as still but he thought he could just catch the faintest scratch scratch in the world a noise as faint as that of a walking on a window pane the dry scratch of a snake s scales on that s or he said to himself and he is crawling into the bath room you re right i should have talked to he stole off to s bath room but there was nothing there and then to s mother s bath room at the bottom of the smooth plaster wall there was a brick pulled out to make a for the bath water and as stole in by the where the bath is put he heard and whispering together outside in the moonlight when the house is emptied of people said to her husband he will have to go away and then the garden will be our own again go in quietly and remember that the big man who killed is the first one to bite then come out and tell me and we will hunt for together but are you sure that there is anything to be gained by killing the people said everything when there were no people in ta vi the did we have any in the garden so long as the is empty we are king and queen of the garden and remember that as soon as our eggs in the bed as they may to morrow our children will need room and quiet i had not thought of that said i will go but there is no need that we should hunt for afterward i will kill the big man and his wife and the child if i can and come away quietly then the will be empty and will go all over with rage and hatred at this and then s head came through the and his five feet of cold body followed it angry as he was was very frightened as he saw the size of the big himself up raised his head and looked into the bath room in the dark and could see his eyes glitter now if i kill him here will know and if i fight him on the open floor the odds are in his favor what am i to do said waved to and fro and then heard him drinking from the biggest water jar that was used to fill the bath that is good i the hook said the snake now when was killed the big man had a stick he may have that stick still but when he comes in to in the morning he will not have a stick i shall wait here till he comes do you hear me i shall wait here in the cool till there was no answer from outside so knew had gone away himself down by round the at the bottom of the water jar and stayed still as death after an hour he began to move muscle by muscle toward the jar was asleep and looked at his big back wondering which would be the best place for a good hold if i don t break his back at the first jump said he can still fight and if he fights o he looked at the thick ness of the neck below the hood but that was too much for him and a bite near the tail would only make savage it must be the head he said at last u the head above the hood and when i am once there i must not let go then he jumped the head was lying a little clear of the water jar under the curve of it and as his teeth met his back against the of the red to hold down the head this gave him just one second s purchase and he made the most of it then he was battered to and fro as a rat is shaken by a dog to and fro on the floor up and down and round in great circles but his eyes were red and he held on as the body over the floor the tin and the soap dish and the flesh brush and against the tin side of the bath as he held he closed his jaws the book and for he made sure he would be to death and for the honor of his family he preferred to be found with his teeth locked he was dizzy aching and felt shaken to pieces when something went off like a just behind him a hot wind knocked him senseless and red fire his fur the big man had been by the noise and had fired both barrels of a shot gun into just behind the hood held on with his eyes shut for now he was quite sure he was dead but the head did not move and the big man picked him up and said it s the again the little chap has saved our lives now then s mother came in with a very white face and saw what was left of and dragged himself to s bedroom and spent half the rest of the night shaking himself tenderly to find out whether he really was broken into forty pieces as he fancied when morning came he was very stiff but well pleased with his doings now i have to settle with and she will be worse than five and there s no knowing when the eggs she spoke of will goodness i must go and see he said without	39
for all the are dead and if they were n t i m here had a right to be proud of himself but he did not grow too proud and he kept that garden as a should keep it with tooth the book and jump and spring and bite till never a dared show its head inside the walls s sung in honor of singer and tailor am i doubled the joys that i know proud of my through the sky proud of the house that i over and under so i my music so i the house that i sing to your again mother oh lift up your head evil that us is slain death in the garden lies dead terror that hid in the roses is impotent flung on the hill and dead who hath delivered us who tell me his nest and his name the the true with of flame the ivory the hunter with of flame i give him the thanks of the birds bowing with tail feathers spread praise him with words nay i will praise him instead hear i will sing you the praise of the bottle with of red here interrupted and the rest of the song is lost of the will remember what i was i am sick of rope and chain i will remember my old strength and all my forest affairs i will not sell my back to man for a bundle of sugar cane i will go out to my own kind and the wood folk in their i will go out until the day until the morning break out to the winds kiss the waters clean caress i will forget my ankle ring and snap my stake i will my lost loves and of the which means black snake had served die indian government in every way that an elephant could serve it for years and as he was fully twenty years old when he was caught that makes him nearly seventy a ripe age for an elephant he remembered pushing with a big leather on his forehead at a gun stuck in deep mud and that was before the war of and he had not then come to his full strength his mother the darling who had been caught in the same drive with told him before his little milk had dropped out that who were afraid always got the book hurt and knew that that advice was good for the first time that he saw a shell burst he backed screaming into a stand of piled and the pricked him in all his places so before he was twenty five he gave up being afraid and so he was the best loved and the best looked after elephant in the service of the government of india he had carried tents twelve hundred pounds weight of tents on the march in upper india he had been hoisted into a ship at the end of a steam and taken for days across the water and made to carry a mortar on his back in a strange and rocky country very far from india and had seen the emperor lying dead in and had come back again in the steamer entitled so the soldiers said to the war he had seen his fellow die of cold and and starvation and up at a place called ten years later and afterward he had been sent down thousands of miles south to haul and pile big of in the timber yards at there he had half killed an young elephant who was his fair share of the work after that he was taken off timber and employed with a few score other of the who were trained to the business in helping to catch wild among the hills are very strictly preserved by the indian government there is one whole department which does nothing else but hunt them and catch them and break them in and send them up and down the country as they are needed for work stood ten fair feet at the shoulders and his had been cut off short at five feet and bound round the ends to prevent them with bands of copper but he could do more with those than any elephant could do with the real sharpened ones when after weeks and weeks of cautious driving of scattered across the hills the forty or fifty wild monsters were driven into the last and the big drop gate made of tree trunks lashed together down behind them at the word of command would go into that generally at night when the of the made it difficult to judge distances and picking out the biggest and wildest of the mob would hammer him and him into quiet while the men on the backs of the other and tied the smaller ones the book there was nothing in the way of fighting that the old wise black snake did not know for he had stood up more than once in his time to the charge of the wounded tiger and curling up his soft trunk to be out of harm s way had knocked the springing brute sideways in mid air with a quick cut of his head that he had invented all by himself had knocked him over and upon him with his huge knees till the life went out with a gasp and a howl and there was only a striped thing on the ground for to pull by the tail yes said big his driver the son of black who had taken him to and of of the who had seen him caught there is nothing that the black snake fears except me he has seen three generations of us feed him and groom him and he will live to see four he is afraid of me also said little standing up to	39
nonsense ends safely next week the catching is over and we of the plains are sent back to our stations then we will march on smooth roads and forget all this hunting but son i am angry that thou in the business that belongs to these dirty will obey none but me so i must go with him into the but he is only a fighting elephant and he does not help to the book rope them so i sit at my ease as a not a mere hunter a i say and a man who gets a at the end of his service is the family of of the to be trodden in the dirt of a bad one wicked one worthless son go and wash and attend to his ears and see that there are no thorns in his feet or else will surely catch thee and make thee a wild hunter a of elephant s foot tracks a bear shame go little went off without saying a word but he told all his while he was examining his feet no matter said little turning up the fringe of huge right ear they have said my name to and perhaps and perhaps and perhaps who knows hai that is a big thorn that i have pulled out the next few days were spent in getting the together in walking the newly caught wild up and down between a couple of tame ones to prevent them from giving too much trouble on the downward march to the plains and in taking stock of the blankets and ropes and things that had been worn out or lost in the forest of the came in on his clever he had been paying off other among the hills for the season was coming to an end and there was a native clerk sitting at a table under a tree to pay the drivers their wages as each man was paid he went back to his elephant and joined the line that stood ready to start the and hunters and the men of the regular who stayed in the year in and year out sat on the backs of the that belonged to s permanent force or leaned against the trees with their guns across their arms and made fun of the drivers who were going away and laughed when the newly caught broke the line and ran about big went up to the clerk with little behind him and the said in an to a friend of his there goes one piece of good at least t is a pity to send that young cock to in the plains now had ears all over him as a man must have who to the most silent of all living things the wild elephant he turned where he was lying all along on s back and said what is that i did not the book know of a man among the plain drivers who had wit enough to rope even a dead elephant this is not a man but a boy he went into the at the last drive and threw there the rope when we were trying to get that young calf with the on his shoulder away from his mother pointed at little and looked and little bowed to the earth he throw a rope he is smaller than a pin little one what is thy name said little was too frightened to speak but was behind him and made a sign with his hand and the elephant caught him up in his trunk and held him level with s forehead in front of the great then little covered his face with his hands for he was only a child and except where were concerned he was just as as a child could be said smiling underneath his and why thou teach thy elephant that trick was it to help thee steal green corn from the roofs of the houses when the ears are put out to dry of the not green corn protector of the poor said little and all the men sitting about broke into a roar of laughter most of them had taught their that trick when they were boys little was hanging eight feet up in the air and he wished very much that he were eight feet he is my son said big he is a very bad boy and he will end in a jail of that i have my doubts said a boy who can face a full at his age does not end in see little one here are four to spend in because thou hast a little head under that great of hair in time thou may est become a hunter too big than ever remember though that are not good for children to play in went on must i never go there asked little with a big gasp yes smiled again when thou hast seen the dance that is the proper time come to me when thou hast seen the dance and then i will let thee go into all the the book there was another roar of laughter for that is an old joke among elephant and it means just never there are great cleared flat places hidden away in the forests that are called but even these are found only by accident and no man has ever seen the dance when a driver of his skill and bravery the other drivers say and when thou see the dance put little down and he bowed to the earth again and went away with his father and gave the silver four piece to his mother who was nursing his baby brother and they all were put up on s back and the line of rolled down the hill path to the plains it was a very lively march on account of the new who	39
gave trouble at every ford and who needed or beating every other minute big for he was very angry but little was too happy to speak had noticed him and given him money so he felt as a private soldier would feel if he had been called out of the ranks and praised by his commander in chief what did mean by the elephant dance he said at last softly to his mother of the big heard him and that thou never be one of these hill of that was what he meant oh you in front what is the way an driver two or three ahead turned round angrily crying bring up and knock this of mine into good behavior why should have chosen me to go down with you of the rice fields lay your beast alongside and let him with his by all the gods of the hills these new are possessed or else they can smell their companions in the hit the new elephant in the ribs and knocked the wind out of him as big said we have swept the hills of wild at the last catch it is only your carelessness in driving must i keep order along the whole line hear him said the other driver we have swept the hills ho ho you are very wise you plains people any one but a mud head who never saw the would know that they know that the drives are ended for the season therefore all the wild tonight will but why should i waste wisdom on a river w the book what will they do little called out o ie little one art thou there well i will tell thee for thou hast a cool head they will dance and it thy father who has swept all the hills of all the to double chain his to night what talk is this said big for forty years father and son we have tended and we have never heard such about dances yes but a plains man who lives in a hut knows only the four walls of his hut well leave thy to night and see what comes as for their dancing i have seen the place where how many has the river here is another ford and we must swim the stop still you behind there and in this way talking and and through the rivers they made their first march to a sort of receiving camp for the new but they lost their long before they got there then the were chained by their hind legs to their big of and extra ropes were fitted to the new and the of the was piled before them and the hill drivers went back to through the afternoon light telling the plains drivers to be extra careful that night and laughing when the asked the reason little attended to s supper and as evening fell wandered through the camp happy in search of a tom tom when an indian child s heart is full he does not run about and make a noise in an irregular fashion he sits down to a sort of all by himself and little had been spoken to by if he had not found what he wanted i believe he would have burst but the in the camp lent him a little tom tom a drum beaten with the flat of the hand and he sat down cross legged before as the stars began to come out the in his lap and he and he and he and the more he thought of the great honor that had been done to him the more he all alone among the elephant there was no tune and no words but the made him happy the new strained at their ropes and and from time to time and he could hear his mother in the camp hut putting the book his small brother to sleep with an old old song about the great god who once told all the animals what they should eat it is a very soothing and the first verse says who poured the harvest and made the winds to blow sitting at the of a day of long ago gave to each his portion food and toil and fate from the king upon the to the beggar at the gate all things made he the he made all thorn for the for the and mother s heart for sleepy head o little son of mine little came in with a joyous a at the end of each verse till he felt sleepy and stretched himself on the at s side at last the began to lie down one after another as is their custom till only at the right of the line was left standing up and he rocked slowly from side to side his ears put forward to listen to the night wind as it blew very slowly across the hills the air was full of all the night noises that taken together make one big silence the click of one stem against the other the rustle of something alive in the the scratch and of a half bird birds are awake in the night of the much more often than we imagine and the fall of water ever so far away little slept for some time and when he it was moonlight and was still standing up with his ears cocked little turned rustling in the and watched the curve of his big back against half the stars in heaven and while he watched he heard so far away that it sounded no more than a of noise pricked through the stillness the of a wild elephant all the in the lines jumped up as if they had been shot and their at last the sleeping and they came out and drove in the with big and this	39
rope and knotted that till all was quiet one new elephant had nearly up his and big took off s leg chain and that elephant fore foot to hind foot but slipped a of round s leg and told him to remember that he was tied fast he knew that he and his father and his grandfather had done the very same thing hundreds of times before did not answer to the order by as he usually did he stood still looking out across the moonlight his head a little raised the book and his ears spread like up to the great folds of the hills look to him if he grows restless in the night said big to little and he went into the hut and slept little was just going to sleep too when he heard the string snap with a little and rolled out of his as slowly and as silently as a cloud rolls out of the mouth of a valley little after him down the road in the moonlight calling under his breath take me with you o the elephant turned without a sound took three strides back to the boy in the moonlight put down his trunk swung him up to his neck and almost before little had settled his knees slipped into the forest there was one blast of furious from the lines and then the silence shut down on everything and began to move sometimes a of high grass washed along his sides as a wave along the sides of a ship and sometimes a cluster of wild vines would scrape along his back or a would where his shoulder touched it but between those times he moved absolutely without of the any sound drifting through the thick forest as though it had been smoke he was going but though little watched the stars in the of the trees he could not tell in what direction then reached the crest of the ascent and stopped for a minute and little could see the tops of the trees lying all and under the moonlight for miles and miles and the blue white mist over the river in the hollow leaned forward and looked and he felt that the forest was awake below him awake and alive and crowded a big brown fruit eating bat brushed past his ear a s rattled in the thicket and in the darkness between the tree stems he heard a digging hard in the moist warm earth and as it then the branches closed over his head again and began to go down into the valley not quietly this time but as a gun goes down a steep bank in one rush the huge limbs moved as steadily as eight feet to each stride and the wrinkled skin of the elbow points the on either side of him with a noise like torn canvas and the that he heaved away right and the book left with his shoulders sprang back again and him on the flank and great of all together hung from his as he threw his head from side to side and out his pathway then little laid himself down close to the great neck lest a swinging bough should sweep him to the ground and he wished that he were back in the lines again the grass began to get and s feet sucked and as he put them down and the night mist at the bottom of the valley chilled little there was a splash and a and the rush of running water and strode through the bed of a river feeling his way at each step above the noise of the water as it round the elephant s legs little could hear more and some both up stream and down great and angry and all the mist about him seemed to be full of rolling shadows at he said half aloud his teeth chattering the elephant folk are out to night it is the dance then out of the water blew his trunk clear and began another climb but this time he was not alone and he had not to make his of the path that was made already six feet wide in front of him where the bent grass was trying to recover itself and stand up many must have gone that way only a few minutes before little looked back and behind him a great wild with his little pig s eyes glowing like hot coals was just lifting himself out of the misty river then the trees closed up again and they went on and up with and and the sound of breaking branches on every side of them at last stood still between two at the very top of the hill they were part of a circle of trees that grew round an irregular space of some three or four acres and in all that space as little could see the ground had been trampled down as hard as a brick floor some trees grew in the of the clearing but their bark was rubbed away and the white wood beneath showed all shiny and polished in the patches of moonlight there were hanging from the upper branches and the bells of the flowers of the great white things like hung down fast asleep but within the limits of the clearing there was not a single blade of green nothing but the trampled earth the book the moonlight showed it all iron gray except where some stood upon it and their shadows were black little looked holding his breath with his eyes starting out of his head and as he looked more and more and more swung out into the open from between the tree trunks little could count only up to ten and he counted again and again on his fingers till he lost count of the and his head began to swim	39
outside the clearing he could hear them crashing in the as they worked their way up the but as soon as they were within the circle of the tree trunks they moved like ghosts there were white wild with fallen leaves and nuts and twigs lying in the wrinkles of their necks and the folds of their ears fat slow footed she with restless little black only three or four feet high running under their young with their just beginning to show and very proud of them with their hollow anxious faces and trunks like rough bark savage old bull from shoulder to flank with great and cuts of fights and the dirt of their solitary mud dropping from of the their shoulders and there was one with a broken and the marks of the full stroke the terrible drawing scrape of a tiger s claws on his side they were standing head to head or walking to and fro across the ground in couples or rocking and swaying all by themselves scores and scores of knew that so long as he lay still on neck nothing would happen to him for even in the rush and scramble of a a wild elephant does not reach up with his trunk and drag a man off the neck of a tame elephant and these were not thinking of men that night once they started and put their ears forward when they heard the of a leg iron in the forest but it was s pet elephant her chain snapped short off up the she must have broken her and come straight from s camp and little saw another elephant one that he did not know with deep rope on his back and breast he too must have run away from some camp in the hills about at last there was no sound of any more moving in the forest and rolled out from his station between the trees and went the book into the middle of the crowd and and all the began to talk in their own tongue and to move about still lying down little looked down upon scores and scores of br ad backs and ears and tossing trunks and little rolling eyes he the click of as they crossed other by accident and the dry rustle of trunks together and the of enormous sides and shoulders in the crowd and the incessant and of the great tails then a cloud came over the moon and he sat in black darkness but the quiet steady and pushing and went on just the same he knew that there were all round and that there was no chance of him out of the assembly so he set his teeth and shivered in a at least there was torch light and shouting but here he was all alone in the dark and once a trunk came up and touched him on the knee then an elephant and they all took it up for five or ten terrible seconds the dew from the trees above down like rain on the unseen backs and a dull noise began not very loud at first and little could not tell what it was but it grew and grew and lifted up one fore foot and then of the the other and brought them down on the ground one two one two as steadily as trip the were stamping altogether now and it sounded like a war drum beaten at the mouth of a cave the dew fell from the trees till there was no more left to fall and the went on and the ground rocked and shivered and little put his hands up to his ears to shut out the sound but it was all one gigantic jar that ran through him this stamp of hundreds of heavy feet on the raw earth once or twice he could feel and all the others forward a few strides and the would change to the crushing sound of green things being bruised but in a minute or two the boom of feet on hard earth began again a tree was creaking and groaning somewhere near him he put out his arm and felt the bark but moved forward still and he could not tell where he was in the clearing there was no sound from the except once when two or three little together then he heard a and a and the went on it must have lasted fully two hours and little ached in every nerve but he knew by the smell of the night air that the dawn was coming the book the morning broke in one sheet of pale yellow behind the green hills and the stopped with the first ray as though the light had been an order before little had got the ringing out of his head before even he had shifted his position there was not an elephant in sight except and the elephant with the rope and there was neither sign nor rustle nor whisper down the to show where the others had gone little stared again and again the clearing as he remembered it had grown in the night more trees stood in the middle of it but the and the grass at the sides had been rolled back little stared once more now he understood the the had stamped out more room had stamped the thick grass and cane to the into the into tiny and the into hard earth said little and his eyes were very heavy my lord let us keep by and go to s camp or i shall drop from thy neck the third elephant watched the two go away wheeled round and took his own path he may have belonged to some little native of the king s establishment fifty or sixty or a hundred miles away two hours later as was eating early breakfast his who had	39
s heart for sleepy head o little son of mine the book wheat he gave to rich folk to the poor broken scraps for holy men that beg from door to door cattle to the tiger to the and rags and bones to wicked wolves without the wall at night naught he found too lofty none he saw too low beside him watched them come and go thought to cheat her husband turning to jest stole the little and hid it in her breast so she him the turn and see tall are the heavy are the but this was least of little things o little son of mine when the was ended she said master of a million mouths is not one laughing made answer all have had their part even he the little one hidden thy heart from her breast she plucked it the thief saw the least of little things a new grown leaf saw and feared and wondered making prayer to who hath surely given meat to all that live all things made he the he made all thorn for the for the a nd mother s heart for sleepy head o little son of mine j her majesty s servants you can work it out by or by simple rule of three but the way of is not the way of you can twist it you can turn it you can it till you drop but the way of s not the way of pop her majesty s servants it had been heavily for one whole month on a camp of thirty thousand men thousands of horses and all gathered together at a place called to be by the of india he was receiving a visit from the of a wild king of a very wild country and the had brought with him for a eight hundred men and horses who had never seen a camp or a before in their lives savage men and savage horses from somewhere at the back of central asia every night a mob of these horses would be sure to break their heel ropes and up and down the camp through the mud in the dark or the book the would break loose and run about and fall over the ropes of the tents and you can imagine how pleasant that was for men trying to go to sleep my tent lay far away from the lines and i thought it was safe but one night a man his head in and shouted get out quick they re coming my tent s gone i knew who they were so i put on my boots and and out into the little my fox went out through the other side and then there was a roaring and a and and i saw the tent cave in as the pole snapped and begin to da about like a mad ghost a had into it and wet and angry as i was i could not help laughing then i ran on because i did not know how many might have got loose and before long i was out of sight of the camp my way through the mud at last i fell over the tail end of a gun and by that knew i was somewhere near the lines where the cannon were at night as i did not want to about any more in the and the dark i put my over the of one gun and made a sort of with two of three that i found and her majesty s servants lay along the tail of another gun wondering where had got to and where i might be just as i was getting ready to sleep i heard a of harness and a and a mule passed me shaking his wet ears he belonged to a screw gun battery for i could hear the rattle of the and rings and chains and things on his saddle the screw guns are tidy little cannon made in two pieces that are together when the time comes to use them they are taken up mountains anywhere that a mule can find a road and they are very useful for fighting in rocky country behind the mule there was a with his big soft feet and slipping in the mud and his neck to and fro like a strayed hen s luckily i knew enough of beast language not wild beast language but camp beast of course from the natives to know what he was saying he must have been the one that into my tent for he called to the mule what shall i do where shall i go i have fought with a white thing that waved and it took a stick and hit me on the neck that was my broken and i was very glad to know it shall we run on the book oh it was you said the mule you and your friends that have been disturbing the camp all right you be beaten for this in the morning but i may as well give you something on account now i heard the harness as the mule backed and caught the two in the ribs that rang like a drum another time he said you know better than to run through a at night shouting thieves and fire sit down and keep your silly neck quiet the doubled up fashion like a two foot rule and sat down there was a regular beat of hoofs in the darkness and a big troop horse up as steadily as though he were on parade jumped a gun tail and landed close to the mule it f disgraceful he said blowing out his nostrils those have through our lines again the third time this week how s a horse to keep his condition if he is n t allowed to sleep	39
you have n t room to swing round rear up a little and come round on your hind legs that s being bridle wise we are n t taught that way said the mule stiffly we ye taught to obey the man at our head step off when he says so and step in when he says so i suppose it comes to the same thing now with all this fine fancy business and which must be very bad for your what do you do that depends said the troop horse generally i have to go in among a lot of yelling hairy men with knives long shiny knives worse than the book the s knives and i have to take care that dick s boot is just touching the next man s boot without crushing it i can see lance to the right of my right eye and i know i m safe i should n t care to be the man or horse that stood up to dick and me when we re in a hurry don t the knives hurt said the young mule well i got one cut across the chest once but that was n t dick s fault a lot i should have cared whose fault it was if it hurt said the young mule you must said the troop horse if you don t trust your man you may as well run away at once that s what some of our horses do and i don t blame them as i was saying it was n t dick s fault the man was lying on the ground and i stretched myself not to tread on him and he up at me next time i have to go over a man lying down i shall step on him hard h m said it sounds very foolish knives are dirty things at any time the proper thing to do is to climb up a mountain with a well balanced saddle hang on by all four feet and your ears too and creep and crawl and along till you come out hundreds of feet j him and he up at me her majesty s servants above any one else on a ledge where there s just room enough for your hoofs then you stand still and keep quiet never ask a man to hold your head young un keep quiet while the guns are being put together and then you watch the little shells drop down into the ever so far below don t you ever trip said the troop horse they say that when a mule you can split a hen s ear said now and again per a badly packed saddle will upset a mule but it s very seldom i wish i could show you our business it s beautiful why it took me three years to find out what the men were driving at the science of the thing is never to show up against the sky line because if you do you may get fired at remember that young un always keep hidden as much as possible even if you have to go a mile out of your way i lead the battery when it comes to that sort of climbing fired at without the chance of running into the people who are firing said the troop horse thinking hard i could n t stand that i should want to charge with dick oh no you would n t you know that as soon as the guns are in position they do all the book the charging that s scientific and neat but knives the baggage had been his head to and fro for some time past anxious to get a word in then i heard him say as he cleared his throat nervously i i i have fought a little but not in that climbing way or that running way no now you mention it said you don t look as though you were made for climbing or running much well how was it old hay the proper way said the we all sat down oh my and said the troop horse under his breath sat down we sat down a hundred of us the went on in a big square and the men piled our and outside the square and they fired over our backs the men did on all sides of the square what sort of men any men that came along said the troop horse they teach us in riding school to lie down and let our masters fire across us but dick is the only man i d trust to do that it my and besides i can t see with my head on the ground her majesty s servants what does it matter who fires across you said the there are plenty of men and plenty of other close by and a great many clouds of smoke i am not frightened then i sit still and wait and yet said you dream bad dreams and upset the camp at night well well before i d lie down not to speak of sitting down and let a man fire across me my heels and his head would have something to say to each other did you ever hear anything so awful as that there was a long silence and then one of the gun lifted up his big head and said this is very foolish indeed there is only one way of fighting oh go on said please don t mind me i suppose you fellows fight standing on your tails only one way said the two together they must have been this is that way to put all twenty yoke of us to the big gun as soon as two tails trumpets two tails is camp for the elephant what does two tails	39
trumpet for said the young mule to show that he is not going any nearer to the smoke on the other side two tails is a the book great coward then we the big gun all together hey a i we do not climb like cats nor run like we go across the level plain twenty yoke of us till we are again and we while the big guns talk across the plain to some town with mud walls and pieces of the wall fall out and the dust goes up as though many cattle were coming home oh and you choose that time for do you said the young mule that time or any other eating is always good we eat till we are up again and the gun back to where two tails is waiting for it sometimes there are big guns in the city that speak back and some of us are killed and then there is all the more for those that are left this is fate nothing but fate none the less two tails is a great coward that is the proper way to fight we are brothers from our father was a sacred bull of we have spoken well i ve certainly learned something tonight said the troop horse do you gentlemen of the screw gun battery feel inclined to eat when you are being fired at with big guns and two tails is behind you her majesty s servants about as much as we feel inclined to sit down and let men all over us or run into people with knives i never heard such stuff a mountain ledge a well balanced load a driver you can trust to let you pick your own way and i m your mule but the other things no said with a stamp of his foot of course said the troop horse every one is not made in the same way and i can quite see that your family on your fathers side would fail to understand a great many things never you mind my family on my father s side said angrily for every mule hates to be reminded that his father was a donkey my father was a southern gentleman and he could pull down and bite and kick into rags every horse he came across remember that you big brown means wild horse without any breeding imagine the feelings of if a called her a and you can imagine how the horse felt i saw the white of his eye glitter in the dark see here you son f an imported he said between his teeth i d have you know that i m related on my mother s side to of the cup and the book where come from we are n t accustomed to being ridden over by any pig headed mule in a pop gun battery are you ready on your hind legs they both reared up facing each other and i was expecting a furious fight when a voice called out of the darkness to the right children what are you fighting about there be quiet both beasts dropped down with a of disgust for neither horse nor mule can bear to listen to an elephant s voice it s two tails said the troop horse i can t stand him a tail at each end is n t fair my feelings exactly said crowding into the troop horse for company we re very alike in some things i suppose we ve inherited them from our mothers said the troop horse it s not worth about hi two tails are you tied up yes said two tails with a laugh all up his trunk i m for the night i ve heard what you fellows have been saying but don t be afraid i m not coming over the and the said half aloud her majesty s servants afraid of two tails what nonsense and the went on we are sorry that you heard but it is true two tails why are you afraid of the guns when they fire well said two tails rubbing one hind leg against the other exactly like a little boy saying a piece i don t quite know whether you d understand we don t but we have to pull the guns said the i know it and i know you are a good deal than you think you are but it s different with me my battery captain called me a the other day that s another way of fighting i suppose said who was recovering his spirits you don t know what that means of course but i do it means and between and that is just where i am i can see inside my head what will happen when a shell bursts and you can t i can said the troop horse at least a little bit i try not to think about it i can see more than you and i do think about it i know there s a great deal of me to take care of and i know that nobody knows how to cure me when i m sick all they can do is to the book stop my driver s pay till i get well and i can t trust my driver ah said the troop horse that explains it i can trust dick you could put a whole regiment of on my back without making me feel any better i know just enough to be uncomfortable and not enough to go on in spite of it we do not understand said the i know you don t i m not talking to you you don t know what blood is we do said the it is red stuff that into the ground and smells the troop horse gave a kick and a bound and a don t talk of	39
looked down between the boy s col lar and neck he put his nose into the ink was awake on the pillow he came to breakfast riding on s shoulder we are very miserable said i am said the look and be afraid but at the bottom of his cold heart he was afraid he jumped up in the air and just under him by the head of in the dark he ran up against the then was battered to and fro as a rat is shaken by a dog s wife to have a broken wing flew down the path with behind her it is all over was the best loved elephant in the service list of illustrations xiii page he is afraid of me said little and he made lift up his feet one after the other he would get his torch and wave it and yell with the best not green corn protector of the poor said little little looked down upon scores and scores of broad backs to of the a had into my tent anybody can be forgiven for being scared in the night said the troop horse the man was lying on the ground and i stretched myself not to tread on him and he up at me then i heard an old long haired central chief asking questions of a native officer preface the demands made by a work of this nature upon the generosity of are very numerous and the editor would be wanting in all title to the generous treatment he has received were he not willing to make the fullest possible acknowledgment of his his thanks are due in the first place to the and accomplished baggage elephant number on the indian register who with his amiable sister most courteously supplied the history of of the and much of the information contained in her majesty s servants the adventures of were collected at various times and in various places from a multitude xvi preface of most of whom desire to preserve the yet at this distance the editor feels at liberty to thank an gentleman of the old rock an esteemed resident of the upper slopes of for his convincing if somewhat estimate of the national characteristics of his caste the a of infinite and industry a member of the recently pack and an artist well known at most of the local of southern india where his dance with his master the youth beauty and culture of many villages have contributed most valuable of people manners and customs these have been freely drawn upon in the stories of tiger tiger s hunting and s brothers for the outlines of the editor stands indebted to one of the leading of upper india a fearless and independent who not to live but know lately sacrificed his life through over application to the study of our eastern preface xvii a happy incident of travel enabled the editor then a passenger on the of india to be of some slight assistance to a fellow how richly his poor services were repaid readers of the white seal may judge for themselves the book now the brings home the night that the bat sets free the herds are shut in and hut for till dawn are we this is the hour of pride and power and and oh hear the call good hunting all that keep the law night song in the h i fe e e fe fe b brothers it was seven o clock of a very warm evening in the hills when father wolf woke up from his day s rest scratched himself yawned and spread out his one after the other to get rid of the sleepy feeling in the tips mother wolf lay with her big gray nose dropped across her four tumbling and the moon shone into the mouth of the cave where they all lived said father wolf it is time to hunt again and he was going to spring when a little shadow with a tail crossed the threshold and good luck go with you o chief of the wolves and good luck and strong white teeth go with the noble children the book that they may never forget the hungry in this world it was the the dish and the wolves of india despise because he runs about making mischief and telling tales and eating rags and pieces of leather from the village rubbish heaps they are afraid of him too because more than any one else in the is apt to go mad and then he forgets that he was ever afraid of any one and runs through the forest biting everything in his way even the tiger hides when little goes mad for madness is the most disgraceful thing that can overtake a wild creature we call it but they call it the madness and run enter then and look said father wolf stiffly but there is no food here for a wolf no said but for so mean a person as myself a dry bone is a good feast who are we the log the people to pick and choose he to the back of the cave where he found the bone of a buck with some meat on it and sat the end merrily all thanks for this good meal he said his lips how beautiful are the noble s brothers how large are their eyes and so young too indeed indeed i might have remembered that the children of kings are men from the beginning now knew as well as any one else that there is nothing so unlucky as to compliment children to their faces and it pleased him to see mother and father wolf look uncomfortable sat still rejoicing in the mischief that he had made and then he said the big one has shifted his hunting grounds he	39
will hunt among these hills during the next moon so he has told me was the tiger who lived near the river twenty miles away he has no right father wolf began angrily by the law of the he has no right to change his quarters without fair warning he will frighten every head of game within ten miles and i i have to kill for two these days his mother did not call him the lame one for nothing said mother wolf quietly he has been lame in one foot from his birth that is why he has only killed cattle now the villagers of the are angry with him and he has come here to make our villagers the book angry they will the for him when he is far away and we and our children must run when the grass is set alight indeed we are very grateful to shall i tell him of your gratitude said out snapped father wolf out and hunt with thy master thou hast done harm enough for one night i go said quietly ye can hear below in the i might have saved myself the message father wolf listened and in the dark valley that ran down to a little river he heard the dry angry of a tiger who has caught nothing and does not care if all the knows it the fool said father wolf to begin a night s work with that noise does he think that our buck are like his fat h sh it is neither nor buck that he to night said mother wolf it is man the had changed to a sort of humming that seemed to roll from every quarter of the compass it was the noise that wood and sleeping in the open s brothers and makes them run sometimes into the very mouth of the tiger man said father wolf showing all his white teeth are there not enough and in the that he must eat man and on our ground too the law of the which never orders anything without a reason every beast to eat man except when he is killing to show his children how to kill and then he must hunt outside the hunting grounds of his pack or tribe the real reason for this is that man killing means sooner or later the arrival of white men on with guns and hundreds of brown men with and and then everybody in the suffers the reason the beasts give among themselves is that man is the and most of all living things and it is to touch him they say too and it is true that man become and lose their teeth the grew louder and ended in the of the tiger s charge then there was a howl an howl from he has missed said mother wolf what is it father wolf ran out a few paces and heard the book muttering and savagely as he tumbled about in the the fool has had no more sense than to jump at a wood camp fire so he has burned his feet said father wolf with a is with him something is coming said mother wolf one ear get ready the bushes a little in the thicket and father wolf dropped with his under him ready for his leap then if you had been watching you would have seen the most wonderful thing in the world the wolf checked in he made his bound before he saw wliat it was he was jumping at and then he tried to stop himself the result was that he shot up straight into the air for four or five feet landing almost where he left ground man he snapped a man s look directly in front of him holding on by a low branch stood a naked brown baby who could just walk as soft and as a little thing as ever came to a wolf s cave at night he looked up into father wolf s face and laughed is that a man s said mother wolf i have never seen one bring it here a wolf accustomed to moving his own s brothers can it necessary mouth an egg without breaking it and though father wolf s jaws closed right on the child s back not a tooth even scratched the skin as he laid it down among the how little how naked and how bold said mother wolf softly the baby was pushing his way between the to get close to the warm hide he is taking his meal with the others and so this is a man s now was there ever a wolf that could boast of a man s among her children i have heard now and again of such a thing but never in our pack or in my time said father wolf he is altogether without hair and i could kill him with a touch of my foot but see he looks up and is not afraid the moonlight was blocked out of the mouth of the cave for s great square head and shoulders were thrust into the entrance behind him was my lord my lord it went in here does us great honor said father wolf but his eyes were very angry what does need my a man s went this way said its parents have run off give it to me lo the book had jumped at a wood s camp fire as father wolf had said and was furious from the pain of his burned feet but father wolf knew that the mouth of the cave was too narrow for a tiger to come in by even where he was s shoulders and fore were cramped for want of room as a man s would be if he tried to fight in a barrel the wolves are a	39
free people said father wolf they take orders from the head of the pack and not from any striped cattle the man s is ours to kill if we choose ye choose and ye do not choose what talk is this of choosing by the bull that i killed am i to stand into your dog s den for my fair it is i who speak the tiger s roar filled the cave with thunder mother wolf shook herself clear of the and sprang forward her eyes like two green in the darkness facing the blazing eyes of and it is i the demon who answer the man s is mine mine to me he shall not be killed he shall live to run with the pack and to hunt with the pack and in the end look you hunter of little naked fish he shall hunt brothers thee now get hence or by the that i killed eat no starved cattle back thou to thy mother burned beast of the than ever thou into the world go father wolf looked on amazed he had almost forgotten the days when he won mother wolf in fair fight from five other wolves when she ran in the pack and was not called the demon for compliment s sake might have faced father wolf but he could not stand up against mother wolf for he knew that where he was she had all the advantage of the ground and would fight to the death so he backed out of the cave mouth growling and when he was clear he shouted each dog in his own yard we will see what the pack will say to this of man the is mine and to my teeth he will come in the end o bush thieves mother wolf threw herself down panting among the and father wolf said to her gravely speaks this much truth the must be shown to the pack wilt thou still keep him mother keep him she gasped he came naked by night alone and very hungry yet he was the book not afraid look he has pushed one of my to one side already and that lame butcher would have killed him and would have run off to the while the villagers here through all our in revenge keep assuredly i will keep him lie still little o thou for the i call thee the time will come when thou wilt hunt as he has hunted thee but what will our pack say said father wolf the law of the lays down very clearly that any wolf may when he withdraw from the pack he belongs to but as soon as his are old enough to stand on their feet he must bring them to the pack council which is generally held once a month at full moon in order that the other wolves may identify them after that inspection the are free to run where they please and until they have killed their first buck no excuse is accepted if a grown wolf of the pack one of them the punishment is death where the murderer can be found and if you think for a minute you will see that this must be so father wolf waited till his could run a little and then on the night of the pack meeting brothers took them and and mother wolf to the council rock a covered with stones and where a hundred wolves could hide the great gray lone wolf who led all the pack by strength and cunning lay out at full length on his rock and below him sat forty or more wolves of every size and color from who could handle a buck alone to young black three year who thought they could the lone wolf had led them for a year now he had fallen twice into a wolf trap in his youth and once he had been beaten and left for dead so he knew the manners and men there was very little talking at the rock the tumbled over one another in the of the circle where their mothers and fathers sat and now and again a senior wolf would go quietly up to a look at him carefully and return to his place on noiseless feet sometimes a mother would push her far out into the moonlight to be sure that he had not been overlooked from his rock would cry ye know the law ye know the law look well o wolves and the anxious mothers would take up the call look look well o wolves at last and mother wolf s neck lifted as the time came father wolf pushed i the book the as they called him into the where he sat laughing and playing with some pebbles that in the moonlight never raised his head from his but went on with the monotonous cry look well a muffled roar came up from behind the rocks the voice of crying the is mine give him to me what have the free people to do with a man s never even his ears all he said was well o wolves what have the free people to do with the orders of any save the free people look well there was a chorus of deep and a young wolf in his fourth year flung back s question to what have the free people to do with a man s now the law of the lays down that if there is any dispute as to the right of a 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 who speaks for this said among the free people who speaks there was no answer and mother wolf got ready for what she knew would	39
trap he loved better than anything else to go with into the dark warm heart of the forest to sleep all through the drowsy day and at night see how did his killing killed right and left as he felt hungry and so did with one exception as soon as he was old enough to understand things told him that he must never touch cattle because he had been bought into the pack at the price of a bull s life all the is thine said and thou 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 the book any cattle young or old that is the law of the 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 was not a creature to be trusted and that some day he must kill but though a young wolf would have remembered that advice every hour forgot it because he was only a boy though he would have called himself a wolf if he had been able to speak in any human tongue was always crossing his path in the for as grew older and the lame tiger had come to be great friends with the younger wolves of the pack who followed him for scraps a thing would never have allowed if he had dared to push his authority to the proper bounds then would flatter them and wonder that such fine young hunters were content to be led by a dying wolf and a man s they tell me would say that at council ye dare not look him between the eyes and the young wolves would growl and brothers who had eyes and ears everywhere knew something of this and once or twice he told in so many words that would kill him some day and would laugh and answer i have the pack and i have thee and though he is so lazy might strike a blow or two for my sake why should i be afraid it was one very warm day that a new notion came to born of something that he had heard perhaps the had told him but he said to when they were deep in the as the boy lay with his head on s beautiful black skin little brother how often have i told thee that is thy enemy as many times as there are nuts on that palm said who naturally could not count what of it i am sleepy and is all long tail and loud talk like the but this is no time for sleeping knows it i know it the pack know it and even the foolish foolish deer know has told thee too ho ho said came to me not long ago with some rude talk that i was the book a naked man s and not fit to dig pig nuts but i caught by the tail and swung him twice against a palm tree to teach him better manners that was foolishness for though is a mischief maker he would have told thee of something that concerned thee closely open those eyes little brother dares not kill thee in the for fear of those that love thee but remember 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 brought to the council first are old too and the young wolves believe as has taught them that a man has with the pack in a little time thou wilt be a man and what is a man that he should not run with his brothers said i was born in the i have obeyed the law of the and there is no wolf of ours from whose i have not pulled a thorn surely they are my brothers stretched himself at full length and half shut his eyes little brother said he feel under my jaw put up his strong brown hand and just under s chin where the giant s brothers rolling muscles were all hid by the glossy hair he came upon a little bald spot there is no one in the that knows that i carry that mark the mark of the collar and yet little brother i was born among men and it was among men that my mother died in the of the king s palace at it was because of this that i paid the price for thee at the council when thou a little naked yes i too was born among men i had never seen the they fed me behind bars from an iron pan till one night i felt that i was the and no man s and i broke the silly lock with one blow of my and came away and because i had learned the ways of men i became more terrible in the than is it not so yes said all the fear bag all except oh thou art a man s said the black very tenderly and even as i returned to my so thou must go back to men at last to the men who are thy brothers if thou art not killed in the council but why but why should any wish to kill me said the book look at me said and looked at him steadily between the eyes the big turned his head away in half a minute that is why he said shifting his on the leaves not even i can look thee between the eyes and i was born among men and	39
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 feet because thou art a man i did not know these things said sullenly and he frowned under his heavy black eyebrows what is the law of the 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 his next kill and at each hunt it costs him more to pin the buck the pack will turn against him and against thee they will hold a council at the rock and then and then i have it said leaping up go thou down quickly to the men s huts in the valley nd take some of the red flower which they grow there so that when the time comes thou have even a s brothers stronger friend than i or or those of the pack that love thee get the red flower by red flower meant fire only no creature in the will call fire by its proper name every beast lives in deadly fear of it and a hundred ways of describing it the red flower said that grows outside their huts in the twilight i will get some there speaks the man s said proudly remember that it grows in little pots get one swiftly and keep it by thee for time of need good said i go but art thou sure o my he slipped his arm round the splendid neck and looked deep into the big eyes art thou sure that all this is s doing by the broken lock that freed me i am sure little brother then by the bull that bought me i will pay full tale for this and it may be a little over said and he bounded away that is a man that is all a man said to himself lying down again oh never was a hunting than that hunt of thine ten years ago the book 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 were out but mother wolf at the back of the cave knew by his breathing that something was troubling her what is it son she said some bat s chatter of he called back i hunt among the fields tonight 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 of a hunted and the as the buck turned at bay then there were wicked bitter from the young wolves let the lone wolf show his strength room for the leader of our pack spring the lone wolf must have sprung and missed his hold for heard the snap of his teeth and then a as the knocked him over with his fore foot he did not wait for anything more but dashed on and the grew fainter behind him as he ran into the crop lands where the villagers lived spoke truth he panted as he brothers down in some cattle by the window of a hut to morrow is one day for and for me then he pressed his face close to the window and watched the fire on the hearth he saw the s wife get up and feed it in the night with black and when the morning came and the mists were all white and cold he saw the man s child pick up a pot inside with earth fill it with of red hot put it under his blanket and go out to tend the cows in the is that all said if a can do it there is nothing to fear so he strode around the corner and met the boy took the pot from his hand and disappeared into the mist while the boy howled with fear they are very like me said blowing into the pot as he had seen the woman do this thing will die if i do not give it things to eat and he dropped twigs and dried bark on the red stuff half way up the hill he met with the morning dew shining like on his coat has missed said the they would have killed him last night but they needed thee also they were looking for thee on the hill the book i was among the lands i am ready look held up the fire pot good now i have seen men thrust a dry branch into that stuff and presently the red flower at the end of it art thou not aid no why should i fear i remember now if it is not a dream how before i was a wolf i lay beside the red flower and it was warm and pleasant all that day 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 came to the cave and told him rudely enough that he was wanted at the council rock he laughed till ran away then went to the council still laughing the lone wolf lay by the side of his rock as a sign that the of the pack was open and with his following of scrap fed wolves walked to and fro openly being flattered lay close to and the fire pot was between s knees when they were all gathered together began to speak a thing he would never have dared to do when was in his prime brothers he has no right whispered say so he is	39
a dog s son he will be frightened sprang to his feet free people he cried does lead the pack what has a tiger to do with our seeing that the is yet open and being asked to speak began by whom said are we all to on this cattle butcher the of the pack is with the pack alone there were of silence thou man s let him speak he has kept our law and at last the of the pack thundered let the dead wolf speak 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 as a rule raised his old head wearily free people and ye too of for twelve seasons i have led ye to and from the kill and in all that time not one has been or now i have missed my kill ye know how that plot was made ye know how ye brought me up to an 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 the book comes to make an end of the lone wolf for it is my right by the law of the that ye come one by one there was a long hush for no single wolf cared to fight to the death then roared what have we to do with this fool he is doomed to die it is the man 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 for ten seasons give me the man or i will hunt here always and not give you one bone he is a man a man s child and from the of my bones i hate him then more than half the pack a man a man what has a man to do with us let him go to his own place and turn all the people of the villages against us no give him to me he is a man and none of us can look him between the eyes his head again and said he 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 also i paid for him with a bull when he was accepted the worth of a bull is little but bag brothers s honor is something that he will perhaps fight for said in his voice a bull paid ten years ago the pack what do we care for bones ten years old or for a pledge said his white teeth under his lip well are ye called the free people no man s can run with the people of the roared give him to me he is our brother in all but blood went on and ye would kill him here in truth i have lived too long some of ye are of cattle and of others i have heard that under s teaching ye go by dark night and snatch children from the villagers therefore i know ye to be and it is to i speak it is certain that i must die and my life is of no worth or i would offer that in the man s place but for the sake of the honor of the pack a little matter that by being without a leader ye have forgotten i promise that if ye let the man 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 the book a brother against whom there is no fault a brother spoken for and bought into the pack according to the law of the he is a man a man a man the pack and most of the wolves began to gather round whose tail was beginning to now the business is in thy hands said to we can do no more except fight stood upright the 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 wolf like the wolves had never told him how they hated him listen you he cried there is no need for this dog s ye have told me so often to night that i am a man though indeed i would have been a wolf with you to my life s end that i feel your words are true so i do not call ye my brothers any more but 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 brothers he flung the fire pot on the ground and some of the red coals lit a of dried moss that up as all the council drew back in terror before the leaping flames thrust his dead branch into the fire till the twigs lit and and whirled it above his head among the wolves thou art the master said in an save from the death he was ever thy friend the grim old wolf who had never asked for mercy in his life gave one piteous look at as the boy stood all naked his long black hair tossing over his shoulders in the light of the blazing branch that made the	39
shadows jump and quiver good said staring around slowly and thrusting out his lower lip i see that ye are dogs i go from you to my own people if they be my own people the 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 he kicked the fire with his foot and the sparks flew up there shall be no war be the book any of us and the pack but here is a debt to pay before i go he strode forward to where sat at the flames and caught him by the on his chin followed close in case of accidents up dog cried up when a man speaks or i will set that coat s ears lay flat back on his head and he shut his eyes for the blazing branch was very near this cattle said he would kill me in the council because he had not killed me when i was a thus and thus then do we beat dogs when we are men stir a and i ram the red flower down thy he beat over the head with the branch and the tiger and in an agony of fear cat go now but remember when next i come to the council rock as a man should come it will be with s hide on my head for the rest goes free to live as he pleases ye will kill him because that is not my will nor do i think that ye will sit here any longer out your tongues as though ye were instead of dogs whom i drive out thus go brothers the fire was burning furiously at the end of the branch and struck right and left round the circle and the wolves ran howling with the sparks burning their fur at last there were only and perhaps ten wolves that had taken s part then something began to hurt 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 what is it what is it he said i do not wish to leave the and i do not know what this is am i dying no little brother those are only tears such as men use said now i know thou art a man and a man s no longer the is shut indeed to thee let them fall they are only tears so 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 howled miserably ye will not forget me said the book never while we can follow a trail said the come to the foot of the hill when thou art a man and we 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 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 i will surely come said and when i come it will be to lay out s hide upon the council rock do not forget me tell them in the never to forget me the dawn was beginning to break when went down the alone to the crops to meet those mysterious things that are called men hunting song of the pack as the dawn was breaking the once twice and again and a leaped up and a leaped up from the pond in the wood where the wild deer sup this i alone beheld once twice and again brothers as the dawn was breaking the 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 on his track once twice and again as the dawn was breaking the wolf pack once twice and again feet in the 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 s hunting his spots are the joy of the his horns are the s pride be clean for the strength of the hunter is known by the of his hide if ye find that the can toss you or the heavy can ye need not stop work to inform us we knew it ten seasons before not the of the stranger but hail them as sister and brother for though they are little and it may be the bear is their mother there is none like to me says the in the pride of his earliest kill but the is large and the he is small let him think and be still of f toll s hunting all that is told here happened some time l before was turned out of the wolf pack it was in the days when was teaching him the law of the 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 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	39
things nobody can describe they have their regular roads and cross roads and all laid out from fifty to seventy or a hundred feet and by these they can travel even at night if necessary two of the strongest caught under the arms and swung off with him through the tree tops twenty feet at a bound had they been alone they could have gone twice as fast but the boy s weight held them back sick the book and giddy as was he could not help enjoying the wild rush though the glimpses of earth far down below frightened him and the terrible check and jerk at the end of the swing over nothing but empty air brought his heart between his teeth his escort would rush him up a tree till he felt the weak branches and bend under them and then with a cough and a would fling themselves into the air outward and downward and bring up hanging by their hands or their feet to the lower limbs of the next tree sometimes he could see for miles and miles over the still green as a man on the top of a mast can see for miles across the sea and then the branches and leaves would lash him across the face and he and his two guards would be almost down to earth again so bounding and crashing and and yelling the whole tribe of log swept along the tree roads with their prisoner for a time he was afraid of being dropped then he grew angry but he knew better than to struggle and then he began to think the first thing was to send back word to and for at the pace the were going he knew his friends would be left far behind it s hunting was useless to look down for he could see only the top sides of the branches so he stared upward and saw far away in the blue the and as he kept watch over the waiting for things to die noticed that the were carrying something and dropped a few hundred yards to find out whether their load was good to eat he whistled with surprise when he saw being dragged up to a tree top and heard him give the call for we be of one blood thou and i the waves of the branches closed over the boy but balanced away to the next tree in time to see the little brown face come up again mark my trail shouted tell of the and the council rock in whose name brother had never seen before though of course he had heard of him the man they call me mark my il the last words were shrieked as he was being swung through the air but nodded and rose up till he looked no bigger than a speck of dust and there he hung watching with his eyes the swaying of the tree tops as s escort whirled along o the book they never go far he said with a chuckle they never do what they set out to do au ways at new things are the log this time if i have any they have down trouble for themselves for is no and can as i know kill more than then he rocked on his wings his feet gathered up under him and waited meanwhile and were furious with rage and grief climbed as he had never climbed before but the branches broke beneath his weight and he slipped down his claws full of bark why thou not warn the man he roared to poor who had set off at a clumsy trot in the hope of the what was the use of half him with blows if thou not warn him haste o haste we we may catch them yet panted at that speed it would not tire a wounded cow teacher of the law a mile of that rolling to and fro would burst thee open sit still and think make a plan this is no time for chasing they may drop him if we follow too close s hunting i they may have dropped him already being tired of carrying him who can trust the log put dead on my head give me black bones to eat roll me into the of the wild bees that i may be stung to death and bury me with the for i am the most miserable of bears o why did i not warn thee against the monkey folk instead of breaking thy head now perhaps i may have knocked the day s lesson out of his mind and he will be alone in the without the master words clasped his over his ears and rolled to and fro moaning at least he gave me all the words correctly a little time ago said impatiently thou hast neither memory nor respect what would the think if i the black curled myself up like the and howled what do i care what the thinks he may be dead by now unless and until they drop him from the branches in sport or kill him out of idleness i have no fear for the man he is wise and well taught and above all he has the eyes that make the people afraid but and it is a the book great evil he is in the power of the log and they because they live in trees have no fear of any of our people licked his one fore thoughtfully fool that i am oh fat brown root digging fool that i am said himself with a jerk it is true what the wild elephant says to each his own fear and they the log fear the rock snake he can climb as well as they can he the young in the night the mere whisper of his name makes their wicked	39
tails cold let us go to what will he do for us he is not of our tribe being and with most evil eyes said he is very old and very cunning above all he is always hungry said promise him many he sleeps for a full month after he has once eaten he may be asleep now and even were he awake what if he would rather kill his own who did not know much about was naturally suspicious then in that case thou and i together old hunter may make him see reason here rubbed his faded brown shoulder against the s hunting and they went to look for the rock they found him stretched out on a warm ledge in the afternoon sun admiring his beautiful new coat for he had been in retirement for the last ten days changing his skin and now he was very splendid darting his big blunt head along the ground and twisting the thirty feet of his body into fantastic knots and curves and his lips as he thought of his dinner to come he has not eaten said with a of relief as soon as he saw the beautifully brown and yellow jacket be careful he is always a little blind after he has changed his skin and very quick to strike was not a poison snake in fact he rather despised the poison for but his strength lay in his and when he had once his huge round anybody there was no more to be said good hunting cried sitting up on his like all of his breed was rather deaf and did not hear the call at first then he curled up ready for any accident his head lowered good hunting for us all he answered what dost thou do here good hunting one of us at least needs the book food is there any news of game a now or even a young buck i am as empty as a dried well we are hunting said carelessly he knew that you must not hurry he is too big give me permission to come with you said a blow more or less is nothing to thee or but i i have to wait and wait for days in a wood path and climb half a night on the mere chance of a young the branches are not what they were when i was young rotten twigs and dry boughs are they all maybe thy great weight has something to do with the matter said i am a fair length a fair length said with a little pride but for all that it is the fault of this new grown timber i came very near to falling on my last hunt very near indeed and the noise of my slipping for my tail was not tight wrapped round the tree the and they called me most evil names yellow said under his whiskers as though he were trying to remember something have they ever called me that f said s hunting something of that kind it was that they shouted to us last moon but we never noticed them they will say anything even that thou hast lost all thy teeth and dare not face anything bigger than a kid because they are indeed these log because thou art afraid of the he horns went on sweetly now a snake especially a wary old like very seldom shows that he is angry but and could see the big muscles on either side of s throat ripple and the log have shifted their grounds he said quietly when i came up into the sun today i heard them among the tree tops it it is the log that we follow now said but the words stuck in his throat for this was the first time in his memory that one of the people had owned to being interested in the doings of the beyond doubt then it is no small thing that takes two such hunters leaders in their own i am certain on the trail of the replied courteously as he swelled with curiosity indeed began i am no more than the old and sometimes very foolish teacher of the book the law to the wolf and here is said the black and his jaws shut with a snap for he did not believe in being humble the trouble is this those nut and of palm leaves have stolen away our man of whom thou hast perhaps heard i heard some news from his make him of a man thing that was entered into a wolf pack but i did not believe is full of stories half heard and very badly told but it is true he is such a man as never was said the best and wisest and of man my own pupil who shall make the name of famous through all the and besides i we love him ts said shaking his head to and fro i also have known what love is there are tales i could tell that that need a clear night when we are all well fed to praise properly said quickly our man is in the hands of the log now and we know that of all the people they fear alone they fear me alone they have good reason said chattering foolish vain s hunting vain foolish and chattering are the but a man thing in their hands is in no good luck they grow tired of the nuts they pick and throw them down they carry a branch half a day meaning to do great things with it and then they snap it in two that is not to be envied they called me also yellow fish was it not worm worm said as well as other things which	39
i cannot now say for shame we must remind them to speak well of their master we must help their wandering memories now whither went they with thy the alone knows toward the sunset i believe said we had thought that thou know i how i take them when they come in my way but i do not hunt the log or or green on a water hole for that matter up up up up look up of the wolf pack looked up to see where the voice came from and there was the sweeping down with the sun shining on the the book of his wings it was near s but he had ranged all over the looking for the bear and missed him in the thick foliage what is it said have seen among the log he bade me tell you i watched the have taken him beyond the river to the monkey city to the cold they may stay there for a night or ten nights or an hour i have told the to watch through the dark time that is my message good hunting all you below full and a deep sleep to you cried i will remember thee in my next kill and put aside the head for thee alone o best of it is nothing it is nothing the boy held the master word i could have done no less and up again to his he has not forgotten to use his tongue said with a chuckle of pride to think of one so young remembering the master word for the birds while he was being pulled across trees it was most firmly driven into him said but i am proud of him and now we must go to the cold s hunting they all knew where that place was but few of the people ever went there because what they called the cold was an old deserted city lost and buried in the and beasts seldom use a place that men have once used the wild will but the hunting tribes do not besides the lived there as much as they could be said to live anywhere and no self respecting animal would come within eye shot of it except in times of when the half ruined and held a little water it is half a night s journey at full speed said looked very serious i will go as fast as i can he said anxiously we dare not wait for thee follow we must go on the quick foot and i feet or no feet i can keep abreast of all thy four said shortly made one effort to hurry but had to sit down and so they left him to come on later while hurried forward at the rocking said nothing but strive as might the huge rock held level with him when they came to a hill stream gained because he bounded across while swam his head and two feet of his the book neck clearing the water but on level ground made up the distance by the broken lock that freed me said when twilight had fallen thou art no slow i am hungry said besides they called me worm and yellow to boot a one let us go on and seemed to pour himself along the ground finding the shortest road with his steady eyes and keeping to it in the cold the monkey people were not thinking of s friends at all they had the boy to the lost city and were very pleased with themselves for the time had never seen an indian city before and though this was almost a heap of ruins it seemed very wonderful and splendid some king had built it long ago on a little hill you could still trace the stone that led up to the ruined gates where the last of wood hung to the worn hinges trees had grown into and out of the walls the were tumbled down and decayed and wild hung out of the windows of the towers on the walls in hanging s hunting a great palace crowned the hill and the marble of the and the fountains was split and stained with red and green and the very in the where the king s used to live had been thrust up and apart by and young trees from the palace you could see the rows and rows of houses that made up the city looking like empty filled with blackness the block of stone that had been an idol in the square where four roads met the and at street corners where the public wells once stood and the shattered of temples with wild on their sides the called the place their city and pretended to despise the people because they lived in the forest and yet they never knew what the buildings were made for nor how to use them they would sit in circles on the hall of the king s council chamber and scratch for and pretend to be men or they would run in and out of the houses and collect pieces of plaster and old bricks in a corner and forget where they had hidden them and fight and cry in crowds and then break off to play up and down the of the king s garden where they would shake the rose trees and the book the in sport to see the fruit and flowers fall they all the passages and dark in the palace and the hundreds of little dark rooms but they never remembered what they had seen and what they had not and so drifted about in ones and or crowds telling one another that they were doing as men did they drank at the and made the water all muddy and then they fought over it and then they would all rush together in and shout	39
there are none in the so wise and good and clever and strong and gentle as the then all would begin again till they grew tired of the city and went back to the tree tops hoping the people would notice them who had been trained under the law of the did not like or understand this kind of life the dragged him into the cold late in the afternoon and instead of going to sleep as would have done after a long journey they joined hands and danced about and sang their foolish songs one of the made a speech and told his companions that s capture marked a new thing in the history of the log for was going to show them how to sticks and together as a protection against s hunting rain and cold picked up some and began to work them in and out and the tried to imitate but in a very few minutes they lost interest and began to pull their friends tails or jump up and down on all i want to eat said i am a stranger in this part of the bring me food or give me leave to hunt here twenty or thirty bounded away to bring him nuts and wild but they fell to fighting on the road and it was too much trouble to go back with what was left of the fruit was sore and angry as well as hungry and he through the empty city giving the strangers hunting call from time to time but no one answered him and felt that he had reached a very bad place indeed all that has said about the log is true he thought to himself they have no law no hunting call and no leaders nothing but foolish words and little picking hands so if i am starved or killed here it will be all my own fault but i must try to return to my own will surely beat me but that is better than chasing silly rose leaves with the log the book but no sooner had he walked to the city wall than the pulled him back telling him that he did not know how happy he was and him to make him grateful he set his teeth and said nothing but went with the shouting to a terrace above the red that were half full of rain water there was a ruined summer house of white marble in the of the terrace built for queens dead a hundred years ago the roof had half fallen in and blocked up the passage from the palace by which the queens used to enter but the walls were made of of marble beautiful set with and and and and as the moon came up behind the hill it shone through the casting shadows on the ground like black velvet sore sleepy and hungry as he was could not help laughing when the log began twenty at a time to tell him how great and wise and strong and gentle they were and how foolish he was to wish to leave them we are great we are free we are wonderful we are the most wonderful people in all the we all say so and so it must be true they s hunting shouted now as you are a new listener and can carry our words back to the people so that they may notice us in future we will tell you all about our most excellent selves made no objection and the gathered by hundreds and hundreds on the terrace to listen to their own singing the praises of the log and whenever a speaker stopped for want of breath they would all shout together this is true we all say so nodded and and said yes when they asked him a question and his head spun with the noise the must have bitten all these people he said to himself and now they have the madness certainly this is the madness do they never go to sleep now there is a cloud coming to cover that moon if it were only a big enough cloud i might try to run away in the darkness but i am tired that same cloud was being watched by two good friends in the ruined ditch below the city wall for and knowing well how dangerous the monkey people were in large numbers did not wish to run any risks the never fight unless they are a hundred to one and few in the care for those odds the book i will go to the west wall whispered and come down swiftly with the slope of the ground in my favor they will not throw themselves upon thy back in their hundreds but i know it said would that were here but we must do what we can when that cloud covers the moon i shall go to the terrace they hold some sort of council there over the boy good hunting said grimly and glided away to the west wall that happened to be the least ruined of any and the big snake was delayed a while before he could find a way up the stones the cloud hid the moon and as wondered what would come next he heard s light feet on the terrace the black had up the slope almost without a sound and was striking he knew better than to waste time in biting right and left among the who were seated round in circles fifty and sixty deep there was a howl of fright and rage and then as tripped on the rolling kicking bodies beneath him a monkey shouted there is only one here kill him kill a mass of biting scratching tearing and pulling closed over while s hunting five or six laid hold of dragged him up the wall of the summer house and	39
pushed him through the hole of the broken dome a boy would have been badly bruised for the fall was a good ten feet but fell as had taught him to fall and landed light stay there shouted the till we have killed thy friend later we will play with thee if the poison people leave thee alive we be of one blood ye and i said quickly giving the snake s call he could hear rustling and hissing in the rubbish all round him and gave the call a second time to make sure down all said half a dozen low voices every old ruin in india becomes sooner or later a dwelling place of and the old summer house was alive with stand still little brother lest thy feet do us harm stood as quietly as he could peering through the and listening to the furious din of the fight round the black the and and and s deep hoarse cough as he backed and and twisted and plunged under the heaps of his enemies for the first time since he was born was fighting for his life must be at hand would not the book have come alone thought and then he called aloud to the roll to the water roll and plunge get to the water heard and the cry that told him was safe gave him new courage he worked his way desperately inch by inch straight for the in silence then from the ruined wall nearest the rose up the war shout of the old bear had done his best but he could not come before he shouted i am here i climb i haste the stones slip under my feet wait my coming o most infamous log he panted up the terrace only to disappear to the head in a wave of but he threw himself on his and spreading out his fore as many as he could hold and then began to hit with a regular bat like the strokes of a a crash and a splash told that had fought his way to the where the could not follow the lay gasping for breath his head just out of water while the stood three deep on the red s hunting stone steps dancing up and down with rage ready to spring upon him from all sides if he came out to help it was then that lifted up his dripping chin and in despair gave the snake s call for protection we be of one blood ye and i for he believed that had turned tail at the last minute even half smothered under the on the edge of the terrace could not help as he heard the big black asking for help had only just worked his way over the west wall landing with a that a stone into the ditch he had no intention of losing any advantage of the ground and and himself once or twice to be sure that every foot of his long body was in working order all that while the fight with went on and the in the round and the bat flying to and fro carried the news of the great battle over the till even the wild elephant and far away scattered bands of the monkey folk woke and came leaping along the tree roads to help their comrades in the cold and the noise of the fight roused all the day birds for miles round o the book then came straight quickly and anxious to kill the fighting strength of a is in the driving blow of his head backed by all the strength and weight of his body if you can imagine a lance or a ram or a hammer weighing nearly half a ton driven by a cool quiet mind living in the handle of it you can imagine roughly what was like when he fought a four or five feet long can knock a man down if he him fairly in the chest and was thirty feet long as you know his first stroke was delivered into the heart of the crowd round was sent home with shut mouth in silence and there was no need of a second the scattered with cries of it is run run generations of had been scared into good behavior by the stories their elders told them of the night thief who could slip along the branches as quietly as moss grows and steal away the strongest monkey that ever lived of old who could make himself look so like a dead branch or a rotten stump that the wisest were deceived till the branch caught them and then was everything that the feared in the for none of them knew the limits s hunting i of his power none of them could look him in the face and none had ever come alive out of his and so they ran with terror to the walls and the roofs of the houses and drew a deep breath of relief his fur was much thicker than s but he had suffered sorely in the fight then opened his mouth for the first time and spoke one long hissing word and the far away hurrying to the of the cold stayed where they were till the loaded branches bent and under them the on the walls and the empty houses stopped their cries and in the stillness that fell upon the city heard shaking his wet sides as he came up from the then the broke out again the leaped higher up the walls they clung round the necks of the big stone and shrieked as they along the while dancing in the summer house put his eye to the and between his front teeth to show his derision and contempt get the man out of that trap i can do no more gasped let us take the man	39
and go they may attack again the book they will not move till i order them stay you and the city was silent once more i could not come before brother but i think i heard thee call this was to i i may have cried out in the battle answered art thou hurt i am not sure that they have not pulled me into a hundred little said gravely shaking one leg after the other i am sore we owe thee i think our lives and i no matter where is the here in a trap i cannot climb out cried the curve of the broken dome was above his head take him away he dances like the he will crush our young said the inside said with a chuckle he has friends everywhere this stand back and hide you o poison people i break down the wall looked carefully till he found a crack in the marble showing a weak spot made two or three light with his head to get the distance and then lifting up six feet of his body clear of the ground sent home half a dozen s hunting full power blows nose first the screen work broke and fell away in a cloud of dust and rubbish and leaped through the opening and flung himself between and an arm round each big neck art thou hurt said him softly i am sore hungry and not a little bruised but oh they have handled ye my brothers ye others also said his lips and looking at the monkey dead on the terrace and round the it is nothing it is nothing if thou art safe o my pride of all little of that we shall judge later said in a dry voice that did not at all like but here is to whom we owe the battle and thou thy life thank him according to our customs turned and saw the great s head swaying a foot above his own so this is the said very soft is his skin and he is not so unlike the log have a care that i do not mistake thee for a monkey some twilight when i have newly changed my coat the book we be of one blood thou and i answered i take my life from thee to night my kill shall be thy kill if ever thou art hungry o all thanks little brother said though his eyes and what may so bold a hunter kill i ask that i may follow when next he goes abroad i kill nothing i am too little but i drive toward such as can use them when thou art empty come to me and see if i speak the truth i have some skill in these he held out his hands and if ever thou art in a trap i may pay the debt which i owe to thee to and to here good hunting to ye all my masters well said growled for had returned thanks very prettily the dropped his head lightly for a minute on s shoulder a brave heart and a courteous tongue said he they shall carry thee far through the but now go hence quickly with thy friends go and sleep for the moon sets and what follows it is not well that thou see the moon was sinking behind the hills and the lines of trembling huddled together s hunting on the walls and looked like ragged of things went down to the for a drink and began to put his fur in order as glided out into the of the terrace and brought his jaws together with a ringing snap that drew all the eyes upon him the moon sets he said is there yet light to see from the walls came a moan like the wind in the tree tops we see o good begins now the dance the dance of the hunger of sit still and watch he turned twice or thrice in a big circle weaving his head from right to left then he began making and figures of eight with his body and soft that melted into squares and five sided figures and never resting never hurrying and never stopping his low humming song it grew darker and darker till at last the dragging shifting disappeared but they could hear the rustle of the scales and stood still as stone growling in their throats their neck hair and watched and wondered log said the voice of at last the book can ye stir foot or hand without my order speak without thy order we cannot stir foot or hand o good come all one pace nearer to me the lines of the swayed forward helplessly and and took one stiff step forward with them nearer and they all moved again laid his hands on and to get them away and the two great beasts started as though they had been from a dream keep thy hand on my shoulder whispered keep it there or i must go back must go back to it is only old making circles on the dust said let us go and the three slipped off through a gap in the walls to the said when he stood under the still trees again never more will i make an ally of and he shook himself all over he knows more than we said trembling in a little time had i stayed i should have walked down his throat s hunting many will walk that road before the moon rises again said he will have good hunting after his own fashion but what was the meaning of it all said who did not know anything of a s powers of fascination i saw no more than a big snake making foolish circles till the dark came and his nose was all sore ho	39
ho said angrily his nose was sore on thy account as my ears and sides and and s neck and shoulders are bitten on thy account neither nor will be able to hunt with pleasure for many days it is nothing said we have the man again true but he has cost us most heavily in time which might have been spent in good hunting in wounds in hair i am half plucked along my back and last of all in honor for remember i who am the black was forced to call upon for protection and and i were both made stupid as little birds by the hunger dance all this man came of thy playing with the log true it is true said sorrowfully i am an evil man and my stomach is sad in me the book what says the law of the did not wish to bring into any more trouble but he could not with the law so he sorrow never stays punishment but remember he is very little i will remember but he has done mischief and blows must be dealt now hast thou anything to say nothing i did wrong and thou art wounded it is just gave him half a dozen love from a s point of view they would hardly have one of his own but for a seven year old boy they amounted to as severe a beating as you could wish to avoid when it was all over and picked himself up without a word now said jump on my back little brother and we will go home one of the beauties of law is that punishment settles all scores there is no afterward laid his head down on s back and slept so deeply that he never when he was put down by mother side in the home cave s hunting road song of the log here we go in a flung half way up to the jealous moon don t you envy our bands don t you wish you had extra hands would n t you like if your tails were so curved in the shape of a s bow now you re angry but never mind brother y thy tail hangs down behind i here we sit in a row thinking of beautiful things we know dreaming of deeds that we mean to do all complete in a minute or two something noble and grand and good won by merely wishing we could now we re going to never mind brother y thy tail hangs down behind all the talk we ever have heard uttered by bat or beast or bird hide or fin or scale or feather it quickly and all together excellent wonderful once again now we are talking just like men let s pretend we are never mind brother y thy tail hangs down behind i this is the way of the monkey kind then join our leaping lines that through the pines that by where light and high the wild by the rubbish in our wake and the noble noise we make be sure be sure we re going to do some splendid things tiger tiger what of the hunting hunter bold brother the watch was long and cold what of the ye went to kill brother he crops in the still where is the power that made your pride brother it from my flank and side where is the haste that ye hurry by brother i go to my to die tiger tiger now we must go back to the last tale but one when left the cave after the fight with the pack at the council rock he went down to the lands where the villagers lived but he would not stop there because it was too near to the and he knew that he had made at least one bad enemy at the council so he hurried on keeping to the rough road that ran down the valley and followed it at a steady trot for nearly twenty miles till he came to a country that he did not know the valley opened out into a great plain dotted the book over with rocks and cut up by at one end stood a little village and at the other the thick came down in a sweep to the grounds and stopped there as though it had been cut off with a all over the plain cattle and were and when the little boys in charge of the herds saw they shouted and ran away and the yellow dogs that hang about every indian village walked on for he was feeling hungry and when he came to the village gate he saw the big thorn bush that was drawn up before the gate at twilight pushed to one side he said for he had come across more than one such in his night after things to eat so men are afraid of the people of the here also he sat down by the gate and when a man came out he stood up opened his mouth and pointed down it to show that he wanted food the man stared and ran back up the one street of the village shouting for the priest who was a big fat man dressed in white with a red and yellow mark on his forehead the priest came to the gate and with him at least a hundred people who stared and talked and shouted and pointed at they have no manners these men folk tiger tiger said to himself only the gray would behave as they do so he threw back his long hair and frowned at the crowd what is there to be afraid of said the priest look at the marks on his arms and legs they are the of wolves he is but a wolf child run away from the	39
of course in playing together the had often harder than they intended and there were white all over his arms and legs but he would have been the last person in the world to call these for he knew what real biting meant t said two or three women together to be bitten by wolves poor child he is a handsome boy he has eyes like red fire by my honor he is not unlike thy boy that was taken by the tiger let me look said a woman with heavy copper rings on her wrists and ankles and she peered at under the palm of her hand indeed he is not he is thinner but he has the very look of my boy the priest was a clever man and he knew that was wife to the richest in the place so he looked up at the sky for a minute and said solemnly what the has taken the book the has restored take the boy into thy house my sister and forget not to honor the priest who sees so far into the lives of men by the bull that bought me said to himself but all this talking is like another looking over by the pack well if i am a man a man i must become the crowd parted as the woman beckoned to her hut where there was a red a great grain chest with curious raised patterns on it half a dozen copper cooking pots an image of a god in a little and on the wall a real looking glass such as they sell at the country she gave him a long drink of milk and some bread and then she laid her hand on his head and looked into his eyes for she thought perhaps that he might be her real son come back from the where the tiger had taken him so she said o did not show that he knew the name dost thou not remember the day when i gave thee thy new shoes she touched his foot and it was almost as hard as horn no she said sorrowfully those feet have never worn shoes but thou art very like my and thou shalt be my son was uneasy because he had never tiger tiger been under a roof before but as he looked at the he saw that he could tear it out any time if he wanted to get away and that the window had no what is the good of a man he said to himself at last if he does not understand man s talk now i am as silly and dumb as a man would be with us in the i must learn their talk it was not for fun that he had learned while he was with the wolves to the challenge of in the and the of the little wild pig so as soon as pronounced a word would imitate it almost perfectly and before dark he had learned the names of many things in the hut there was a difficulty at because would not sleep under anything that looked so like a trap as that hut and when they shut the door he went through the window give him his will said s husband remember he can never till now have slept on a bed if he is indeed sent in the place of our son he will not run away so stretched himself in some long clean grass at the edge of the field but before he had closed his eyes a soft gray nose him under the chin the book said gray brother he was the eldest of mother this is a poor reward for following thee twenty miles thou of wood smoke and cattle altogether like a man already wake little brother i bring news are all well in the said him all except the wolves that were burned with the red flower now listen has gone away to hunt far off till his coat grows again for he is badly when he returns he that he will lay thy bones in the there are two words to that i also have made a little promise but news is always good i am tired to night very tired with new things gray brother but bring me the news always thou wilt not forget that thou art a wolf men will not make thee forget said gray brother anxiously never i will always remember that i love thee and all in our cave but also i will always remember that i have been cast out of the pack and that thou be cast out of another pack men are only men little brother and tiger tiger loi their talk is like the talk of in a pond when i come down here again i will wait for thee in the at the edge of the for three months after that night hardly ever left the village gate he was so busy learning the ways and customs of men first he had to wear a cloth round him which annoyed him horribly and then he had to learn about money which he did not in the least understand and about of which he did not see the use then the little children in the village made him very angry luckily the law of the had taught him to keep his temper for in the life and food depend on keeping your temper but when they made fun of him because he would not play games or fly or because he some word only the knowledge that it was to kill little naked kept him from picking them up and breaking them in two he did not know his own strength in the least in the he knew he was weak compared with the beasts but in the village people said he was as strong as a	39
bull and had not the faintest idea of the difference that caste makes between man and i the book man when the s donkey slipped in the clay pit hauled it out by the tail and helped to the pots for their journey to the market at that was very shocking too for the is a low caste man and his donkey is worse when the priest him threatened to put him on the donkey too and the priest told s husband that had better be set to work as soon as possible and the village head man told that he would have to go out with the next day and herd them while they no one was more pleased than and that night because he had been appointed a servant of the village as it were he went off to a circle that met every evening on a platform under a great fig tree it was the village club and the head man and the and the who knew all the gossip of the village and old the village hunter who had a tower met and smoked the sat and talked in the upper branches and there was a hole under the platform where a lived and he had his little of milk every night because he was sacred and the old men sat around the tree and talked and pulled at the big the water pipes till far into the tiger tiger night they told wonderful tales of gods and men and ghosts and told even more wonderful ones of the ways of beasts in the till the eyes of the children sitting outside the circle out of their heads most of the tales were about animals for the was always at their door the deer and the wild pig up their crops and now and again the tiger carried off a man at twilight within sight of the village gates who naturally knew something about what they were talking of had to cover his face not to show that he was laughing while the tower across his knees climbed on from one wonderful story to another and s shoulders shook was explaining how the tiger that had carried away s son was a ghost tiger and his body was inhabited by the ghost of a wicked old money who had died some years ago and i know that this is true he said because always from the blow that he got in a riot when his account books were burned and the tiger that i speak of he too for the tracks of his are unequal true true that must be the truth said the nodding together the book are all these tales such and said that tiger because he was born lame as every one knows to talk of the soul of a money in a beast that never had the courage of a is child s talk was speechless with surprise for a moment and the head man stared it is the is it said if thou art so wise better bring his hide to for the government has set a hundred on his life better still do not talk when thy elders speak rose to go all the evening i have lain here listening he called back over his shoulder and except once or twice has not said one word of truth concerning the which is at his very doors how then shall i believe the tales of ghosts and gods and which he says he has seen it is full time that boy went to said the head man while puffed and at s impertinence the custom of most indian villages is for a few boys to take the cattle and out to in the early morning and bring them back at night and the very cattle that would a white man to death allow themselves to be tiger tiger and and shouted at by children that hardly come up to their noses so long as the boys keep with the herds they are safe for not even the tiger will charge a mob of cattle but if they to pick flowers or hunt they are sometimes carried off went through the village street in the dawn sitting on the back of the great herd bull and the blue with their long backward sweeping horns and savage eyes rose out of their one by one and followed him and made it very clear to the children with him that he was the master he beat the with a long polished and told one of the boys to the cattle by themselves while he went on with the and to be very careful not to stray away from the herd an indian ground is all rocks and and and little among which the herds scatter and disappear the generally keep to the pools and muddy places where they lie or in the warm mud for hours drove them on to the edge of the plain where the river came out of the then he dropped from s neck trotted off to a and found gray brother ah said gray brother lo the book i have waited here very many days what is the meaning of this cattle work it is an order said i am a village herd for a while what news of he has come back to this country and has waited here a long time for thee now he has gone off again for the game is scarce but he means to kill thee very good said so long as he is away do thou or one of the brothers sit on that rock so that i can see thee as i come out of the village when he comes back wait for me in the by the xx in the of the plain we need not walk into s mouth then picked out a shady place and lay down and	39
slept while the round him in india is one of the things in the world the cattle move and and lie down and move on again and they do not even low they only and the very seldom say anything but get down into the muddy pools one after another and work their way into the mud till only their noses and staring china blue eyes show above the surface and there they lie like logs the sun makes the rocks tiger tiger dance in the heat and the herd children hear one never any more whistling almost out of sight overhead and they know that if they died or a cow died that would sweep down and the next miles away would see him drop and follow and the next and the next and almost before they were dead there would be a score of hungry come out of nowhere then they sleep and wake and sleep again and little baskets of dried grass and put in them or catch two praying and make them fight or string a of red and black nuts or watch a on a rock or a snake hunting a near the then they sing long long songs with odd native at the end of them and the day seems longer than most people s whole lives and perhaps they make a mud castle with mud figures of men and horses and and put into the men s hands and pretend that they are kings and the figures are their armies or that they are gods to be then evening comes and the children call and the lumber up out of the mud with noises like going off one after the other and they all string across the gray plain back to the twinkling village lights no the book day after day would lead the out to their and day after day he would see gray brother s back a mile and a half away across the plain so he knew that had not come back and day after day he would lie on the grass listening to the noise round him and dreaming of old days in the if had made a false step with his lame up in the by the would have heard him in those long still mornings at last a day came when he did not see gray tiger tiger iii brother at the signal place and he laughed and headed the for the by the which was all covered with golden red flowers there sat gray brother every on his back lifted he has hidden for a month to throw thee off thy guard he crossed the last night with hot foot on thy trail said the wolf panting frowned i am not afraid of but is very cunning have no fear said gray brother his lips a little i met in the dawn now he is telling all his wisdom to the but he told me everything before i broke his back s plan is to wait for thee at the village gate this evening for thee and for no one else he is lying up now in the big dry of the has he eaten to day or does he hunt empty said for the answer meant life or death to him he killed at dawn a pig and he has drunk too remember could never fast even for the sake of revenge h fool fool what a s it is eaten and drunk too and he thinks that i shall the book wait till he has slept now where does he lie up if there were but ten of us we might pull him down as he lies these will not charge unless they wind him and i cannot speak their language can we get behind his track so that they may smell it he swam far down the to cut that off said gray brother told him that i know he would never have thought of it alone stood with his finger in his mouth thinking the big of the that opens out on the plain not half a mile from here i can take the herd round through the to the head of the and then sweep down but he would out at the foot we must block that end gray brother thou cut the herd in two for me not i perhaps but i have brought a wise gray brother trotted off and dropped into a hole then there lifted up a huge gray head that knew well and the hot air was filled with the most desolate cry of all the the hunting howl of a wolf at midday said clapping his hands i might have known that thou not forget me we have a big work in hand cut the herd in two keep the cows and tiger tiger together and the and the by themselves the two wolves ran ladies chain fashion in and out of the herd which and threw up its head and separated into two in one the cow stood with their in the and glared and ready if a wolf would only stay still to charge down and the life out of him in the other the and the young and stamped but though they looked more imposing they were much less dangerous for they had no to protect no six men could have divided the herd so neatly what orders panted they are trying to join again slipped on to s back drive the away to the left gray brother when we are gone hold the cows together and drive them into the foot of the how far said gray brother panting and snapping till the sides are higher than can jump shouted keep them there till we come down the swept off as and gray brother stopped in front of the cows they charged down on him	39
and the book he ran just before them to the foot of the as drove the far to the left well done another charge and they are fairly started careful now careful a snap too much and the will charge this is work than driving thou think these creatures could move so swiftly called i have have hunted these too in my time gasped in the dust shall i turn them into the ay turn swiftly turn them is mad v ith rage oh if i could only tell him what i need of him to day the were turned to the right this time and into the standing thicket the other herd children watching with the cattle half a mile away hurried to the village as fast as their legs could carry them crying that the had gone mad and run away but s plan was simple enough all he wanted to do was to make a big circle and get at the head of the and then take the down it and catch between the and the cows for he knew that after a meal and a full drink would not be in any condition to fight or to up the tiger tiger sides of the he was soothing the now by voice and had dropped far to the rear only once or twice to hurry the rear guard it was a long long circle for they did not wish to get too near the and give warning at last rounded up the bewildered herd at the head of the on a grassy patch that down to the itself from that height you could see across the tops of the trees down to the plain below but what looked at was the sides of the and he saw with a great deal of satisfaction that they ran nearly straight up and down and the vines and that hung over them would give no to a tiger who wanted to get out let them breathe he said holding up his hand they have not him yet let them breathe i must tell who comes we have him in the trap he put his hands to his mouth and shouted down the it was almost like shouting down a and the echoes jumped from rock to rock after a long time there came back the sleepy of a full fed tiger just awakened il the book who calls said and a splendid fluttered up out of the i cattle thief it is time to come to the council rock down hurry them down down down the herd paused for an instant at the edge of the slope but gave tongue in the full hunting yell and they pitched over one after the other just as shoot the sand and stones up round them once started there w as no of stopping and before they were fairly in the bed of the and ha ha said on his back now thou and the torrent of black horns foaming and staring eyes whirled down the like in flood time the weaker being shouldered out to the sides of the where they tore through the they knew what the business was before them the terrible charge of the herd against which no tiger can hope to stand heard the thunder of their hoofs picked himself up and down the looking from side to side for some way of escape but the walls of the were straight and he had to tiger tiger keep on heavy with his dinner and his drink willing to do anything rather than fight the herd through the pool he had just left till the narrow cut rang heard an answering from the foot of the saw turn the tiger knew if the worst came to the worst it was better to meet the than the cows with their and then tripped stumbled and went on again over something soft and with the at his heels full into the other herd while the weaker were lifted n off their feet by the shock of the meeting that charge carried both herds out into the plain and stamping and watched his time and slipped off s neck laying about him right and left with his stick quick break them up scatter them or they will be fighting one another drive them away hai hai hat hat my children softly now softly it is all over and gray brother ran to and fro the legs and though the herd wheeled once to charge up the again managed to turn and the others followed him to the ii the book needed no more he was dead and the were coming for him already brothers that was a dog s death said feeling for the knife he always carried in a round his neck now that he lived with men but he would never have shown fight his hide will look well on the council rock we must get to work swiftly a boy trained among men would never have dreamed of a ten foot tiger alone but knew better than any one else how an animal s skin is fitted on and how it can be taken off but it was hard work and and tore and for an hour while the wolves out their tongues or came forward and as he ordered them presently a hand fell on his shoulder and looking up he saw with the tower the children had told the village about the and went out angrily only too anxious to correct for not taking better care of the herd the wolves dropped out of sight as soon as they saw the man coming what is this folly said angrily to think that thou skin a tiger where did the kill him it is the lame tiger tiger tiger too and there is a hundred on his head well well we	39
will overlook thy letting the herd run off and perhaps i will give thee one of the of the reward when i have taken the skin to he in his waist cloth for flint and steel and stooped down to s whiskers most native hunters a tiger s whiskers to prevent his ghost haunting them hum said half to himself as he back the skin of a fore so thou wilt take the hide to for the reward and perhaps give me one now it is in my mind that i need the skin for my own use old man take away that fire what talk is this to the chief hunter of the village thy luck and the stupidity of thy have helped thee to this kill the tiger has just fed or he would have gone twenty miles by this time thou not even skin him properly little beggar and i must be told not to his whiskers i will not give thee one of the reward but only a very big beating leave the by the bull that bought me said who was trying to get at the shoulder must i i the book stay to an old all noon here this man me who was still stooping over s head found himself on the grass with a gray wolf standing over him while went on as though he were alone in all india ye es he said between his teeth thou art altogether right thou wilt never give me one of the reward there is an old war between this lame tiger and myself a very old war and i have won to do justice if he had been ten years younger he would have taken his chance with had he met the wolf in the woods but a wolf who obeyed the orders of this boy who had private wars with man eating was not a common animal it was magic of the worst kind thought and he wondered whether the round his neck would protect him he lay as still as still expecting every minute to see turn into a tiger too great king he said at last in a whisper yes said without turning his head a little g f o w o r w m o h o a a h o h c h o tiger tiger i am an old man i did not know that thou anything more than a herd boy may i rise up and go away or will thy servant tear me to pieces go and peace go with thee only another time do not with my game let him go away to the village as fast as he could looking back over his shoulder in case should change into something terrible when he got to the village he told a tale of magic and enchantment and that made the priest look very grave went on with his work but it was nearly twilight before he and the wolves had drawn the great gay skin clear of the body now we must hide this and take the home help me to herd them the herd rounded up in the misty twilight and when they got near the village saw lights and heard the and bells in the temple blowing and half the village seemed to be waiting for him by the gate that is because i have killed he said to himself but a shower of stones whistled about his ears and the villagers shouted the book demon go away get hence quickly or the priest will turn thee into a wolf again shoot shoot the old tower went off with a bang and a young in pain more shouted the villagers he can turn bullets that was thy now what is this said bewildered as the stones flew thicker they are not unlike the pack these brothers of thine said sitting down it is in my head that if bullets mean anything they would cast thee out wolf go away shouted the priest waving a of the sacred plant again last time it was because i was a man this time it is because i am a wolf let us go a woman it was ran across to the herd and cried oh my son my son they say thou art a who can turn himself into a beast at will i do not believe but go away or they will kill thee says thou art a but i know thou hast s death come back shouted the crowd come back or we will stone thee tiger tiger laughed a little short ugly laugh for a stone had hit him in the mouth run back this is one of the foolish tales they tell under the big tree at dusk i have at least paid for thy son s life farewell and run quickly for i shall send the herd in more swiftly than their i am no farewell now once more he cried bring the herd in the were anxious enough to get to the village they hardly needed s yell but charged through the gate like a scattering the crowd right and left keep count shouted scornfully it may be that i have stolen one of them keep count for i will do your no more fare you well children of men and thank that i do not come in with my wolves and hunt you up and down your street he turned on his heel and walked away with the lone wolf and as he looked up at the stars he felt happy no more sleeping in traps for me let us get s skin and go away no we will not hurt the village for was kind to me when the moon rose over the plain making it look all the villagers saw the book with two wolves at his heels and a bundle on his head	39
trotting across at the steady wolf s trot that eats up the long miles like fire then they when the moon rose over the plain the villagers saw trotting across with two wolves at his heels the temple bells and blew the louder than ever and cried and embroidered the story of his adventures in the till he ended by saying that stood up on his hind legs and talked like a man the moon was just going down when and the two wolves came to the hill of the council rock and they stopped at mother cave they have cast me out from the man pack tiger tiger i mother shouted but i come with the hide of to keep my word mother wolf walked stiffly from the cave with the behind her and her eyes glowed as she saw the skin i told him on that day when he crammed his head and shoulders into this cave hunting for thy life little i told him that the hunter would be the hunted it is well done little brother it is well done said a deep voice in the thicket we were lonely in the without thee and came running to s bare feet they up the council rock together and spread the skin out on the flat stone where used to sit and it down with four of and lay down upon it and called the old call to the council look look well o wolves exactly as he had called when was first brought there ever since had been the pack had been without a leader hunting and fighting at their own pleasure but they answered the call from habit and some of them were lame from the traps they had fallen into and some from shot wounds and some were from eating bad food and many were missing but they came to the council rock all that were left of the book them and saw s striped hide on the rock and the huge claws at the end of the empty feet it was then that made up a song without any a song that came up into his throat all by itself and he shouted it aloud leaping up and down on the rattling skin and beating time with his heels till he had no more breath left while gray brother and howled between the verses look well o wolves have i kept my word said when he had finished and the wolves yes and one tattered wolf howled lead us again o lead us again o man for we be sick of this and we would be the free people once more nay that may not be when ye are full fed the madness may come upon ye again not for nothing are ye called the free people ye fought for freedom and it is yours eat it o wolves man pack and wolf pack have cast me out said now i will hunt alone in the and we will hunt with thee said the four they up on the council rock together and spread the skin out on the flat stone tiger tiger so went away and hunted with the four in the from that day on but he was not always alone because years afterward he became a man and married but that is a story for grown song that he sang at the council rock when he danced on s hide the song of i am singing let the listen to the things i have done said he would kill would kill at the gates in the twilight he would kill the he ate and he drank drink deep for when wilt thou drink again sleep and dream of the kill i am alone on the grounds gray brother come to me come to me lone wolf for there is big game bring up the great bull the blue herd with the angry eyes drive them to and fro as i order thou still wake o wake here come i and the are behind the book the king of the stamped with his foot waters of the whither went he is not to dig holes nor the that he should fly he is not the bat to hang in the branches little that together tell me where he ran ow he is there he is there under the feet of lies the lame one up up and kill here is meat break the necks of the i he is asleep we will not wake him for his strength is very great the have come down to see it the black have come up to know it there is a great assembly in his honor i have no cloth to wrap me the will see that i am naked i am ashamed to meet all these people lend me thy coat lend me thy gay striped coat that i may go to the council rock by the bull that bought me i have made a promise a little promise only thy coat is lacking before i keep my word with the knife with the knife that men use with the knife of the hunter the man i will stoop down for my gift waters of the bear witness that gives me his coat for the love that he bears me pull gray brother pull heavy is the hide of tiger tiger the man pack are angry they throw stones and talk child s talk my mouth is bleeding let us run away through the night through the hot night run swiftly with me my brothers we will leave the lights of the village and go to the low moon waters of the the man pack have cast me out i did them no harm but they were afraid of me why wolf pack ye have cast me out too the is shut to me and	39
and under my tail the book ten deep he said that means there s a gale behind me come along when you re south of the water he meant the and your tail that means there s a gale in front of you and north come along the water feels bad here this was one of very many things that learned and he was always learning taught him how to follow the and the along the under sea banks and the out of his hole among the weeds how to skirt the lying below water and dart like a rifle bullet in and out at another the white seal as the fishes ran how to dance on the top of the waves when the lightning was racing all over the sky and wave his politely to the and the man of war hawk as they went down the wind how to jump three or four feet clear of the water like a close to the side and tail curved to leave the flying fish alone because they are all bony to take the shoulder piece out of a at full speed ten deep and never to stop and look at a boat or a ship but particularly a row boat at the end of six months what did not know about deep sea fishing was not worth the knowing and all that time he never set on dry ground one day however as he was lying half asleep in the warm water somewhere off the island of he felt faint and lazy all over just as human people do when the spring is in their legs and he remembered the good firm of seven thousand miles away the games his companions played the smell of the the seal roar and the fighting that very minute he turned north swimming steadily and as he went on he met scores of his mates all bound for the same place and they said greeting this year the book we are all and we can dance the fire dance in the off and play on the new grass but where did you get that coat s fur was almost pure white now and though he felt very proud of it he only said swim quickly my bones are aching for the land and so they all came to the where they had been born and heard the old their fathers fighting in the rolling mist that night danced the fire dance with the the sea is full of fire on summer nights all the way down from to and each seal leaves a wake like burning oil behind him and a flaming flash when he and the waves break in great streaks and then they went inland to the grounds and rolled up and down in the new wild wheat and told stories of what they had done while they had been at sea they talked about the pacific as boys would talk about a wood that they had been in and if any one had understood them he could have gone away and made such a of that ocean as never was the four year old down from s hill crying out of the way the white seal the sea is deep and you don t know all that s in it yet wait till you ve rounded the horn hi you where did you get that white coat i did n t get it said it grew and just as he was going to roll the speaker over a couple of black haired men with flat red faces came from behind a sand and who had never seen a man before and lowered his head the just off a few yards and sat staring the men were no less than the chief of the seal hunters on the island and his son they came from the little village not half a mile from the seal and they were deciding what they would drive up to the killing pens for the were driven just like sheep to be turned into later on ho said look there s a white seal turned nearly white under his oil and smoke for he was an and are not clean people then he began to a prayer don t touch him there has never been a white seal since since i was born perhaps it is old s ghost he was lost last year in the big gale iso the book i m not going near him said he s unlucky do you really think he is old come back i owe him for some eggs don t look at him said head off that drove of four year the men ought to skin two hundred to day but it s the beginning of the season and they are new to the work a hundred will do quick rattled a pair of seal s in front of a herd of and they stopped dead puffing and blowing then he stepped near and the began to move and headed them inland and they never tried to get back to their companions hundreds and hundreds of thousands of watched them being driven but they went on playing just the same was the only one who asked questions and none of his companions could tell him anything except that the men always drove in that way for six weeks or two months of every year i am going to follow he said and his eyes nearly out of his head as he along in the wake of the herd the white seal is coming after us cried that s the first time a seal has ever come to the killing grounds alone the white seal don t look behind you said it is ghost i must speak to the priest about this the distance to the killing grounds was only half a mile but it took an hour to	39
cover because if the went too fast knew that they would get heated and then their fur would come off in patches when they were so they went on very slowly past sea lion s neck past house till they came to the salt house just beyond the sight of the on the beach followed panting and wondering he thought that he was at the world s end but the roar of the seal behind him sounded as loud as the roar of a train in a then sat down on the moss and pulled out a heavy watch and let the drove cool off for thirty minutes and could hear the dripping from the brim of his cap then ten or twelve men each with an iron bound club three or four feet long came up and pointed out one or two of the drove that were bitten by their companions or were too hot and the men kicked those aside with their heavy boots made of the skin of a s throat and then said let go and then the men the on the head as fast as they could the book ten minutes later little did not recognize his friends any more for their skins were off from the nose to the hind whipped off and thrown down on the ground in a pile that was enough for he turned and galloped a seal can gallop very swiftly for a short time back to the sea his little new with horror at sea lion s neck where the great sea lions sit on the edge of the surf he flung himself over head into the cool water and rocked there gasping miserably what s here said a sea lion for as a rule the sea lions keep themselves to themselves t i m very said they re killing all the on all the the sea lion turned his head nonsense he said your friends are making as much noise as ever you must have seen old off a drove he s done that for thirty years it s horrible said water as a wave went over him and himself with a screw stroke of his that brought him up all standing within three inches of a jagged edge of rock the white seal well done for a said the sea lion who could appreciate good swimming i suppose it is rather awful from your way of looking at it but if you will come here year after year of course the men get to know of it and unless you can find an island where no men ever come you will always be driven is n t there any such island began i ve followed the the for twenty years and i can t say i ve found it yet but look here you seem to have a fondness for talking to your suppose you go to and talk to sea he may know something don t off like that it s a six mile swim and if i were you i should haul out and take a nap first little one thought that that was good advice so he swam round to his own beach hauled out and slept for half an hour all over as will then he headed straight for a little low sheet of rocky island almost due from all of rock and nests where the by themselves he landed close to old sea the big ugly fat long of the north pacific who has no manners the book except when he is asleep as he was then with his hind half in and half out of the surf wake up for the were making a great noise ho what s that said sea they were all awake and staring in every direction but the right one and he struck the next a blow with his and him up and the next struck the next and so on till they were all awake and staring in every direction but the right one hi it s me said in the surf and looking like a little white well may i be said sea the white seal and they all looked at as you can fancy a club full of drowsy old gentlemen would look at a little boy did not care to hear any more about just then he had seen enough of it so he called out is n t there any place for to go where men don t ever come go and find out said sea shutting his eyes run away we re busy here made his jump in the air and shouted as loud as he could he knew that sea never caught a fish in his life but always rooted for and though he pretended to be a very terrible person naturally the and the and the the and the and the who are always looking for a chance to be rude took up the cry and so told me for nearly five minutes you could not have heard a gun fired on all the population was yelling and screaming old man while sea rolled from side to side and now will you tell said all out of breath go and ask sea cow said sea if he is living still he be able to tell you the book how shall i know sea cow when i meet him said off he s the only thing in the sea than sea screamed a under sea s nose and with worse manners swam back to leaving the to scream there he found that no one with him in his little attempts to discover a quiet place for the they told him that men had always driven the it was part of the day s work and that if he did not like to see ugly things he should not have gone to	39
the killing grounds but none of the other had seen the killing and that made the difference between him and his friends besides was a white seal what you must do said old sea catch after he had heard his son s adventures is to grow up and be a big seal like your father and have a nursery on the beach and then they will leave you alone in another five years you ought to be able to fight for yourself even gentle his mother said you will never be able to stop the killing go and play in the sea and went off and danced the fire dance with a very heavy little heart the white seal that autumn he left the beach as soon as he could and set off alone because of a notion in his bullet head he was going to find sea cow if there was such a person in the sea and he was going to find a quiet island with good firm for to live on where men could not get at them so he and by himself from the north to the south pacific swimming as much as three hundred miles in a day and a night he met with more adventures than can be told and narrowly escaped being caught by the and the spotted and the and he met all the that loaf up and down the high seas and the heavy polite fish and the scarlet spotted that are in one place for hundreds of years and grow very proud of it but he never met sea cow and he never found an island that he could fancy if the beach was good and hard with a slope behind it for to play on there was always the smoke of a on the horizon boiling down and knew what that meant or else he could see that had once visited the island and been killed off and knew that where men had come once they would come again the book he picked up with an old who told him that island was the very place for peace and quiet and when went down there he was all but smashed to pieces against some wicked black cliffs in a heavy storm with lightning and thunder yet as he pulled out against the gale he could see that even there had once been a seal nursery and it was so in all the other islands that he visited gave a long list of them for he said that spent five seasons exploring with a four months rest each year at where the used to make fun of him and his imaginary islands he went to the a horrid dry place on the where he was nearly baked to death he went to the islands the island little island cough s island s island the and even to a little speck of an island south of the cape of hope but everywhere the people of the sea told him the same things had come to those islands once upon a time but men had killed them all off even when he swam thousands of miles out of the pacific and got to a place called cape that was when he the white seal was coming back from s island he found a few hundred on a rock and they told him that men came there too that nearly broke his heart and he headed round the horn back to his own and on his way north he hauled out on an island full of green trees where he found an old old seal who was dying and caught fish for him and told him all his sorrows now said i am going back to and if i am driven to the killing pens with the i shall not care the old seal said try once more i am the last of the lost of and in the days when men killed us by the hundred thousand there was a story on the that some day a white seal would come out of the north and lead the seal people to a quiet place i am old and i shall never live to see that day but others will try once more and curled up his it was a beauty and said i am the only white seal that has ever been born on the and i am the only seal black or white who ever thought of looking for new islands that cheered him immensely and when he came back to that summer o the book his mother begged him to marry and settle down for he was no longer a but a full grown sea catch with a curly white mane on his shoulders as heavy as big and as fierce as his father give me another season he said remember mother it is always the seventh wave that goes farthest up the beach curiously enough there was another seal who thought that she would put off marrying till the next year and danced the fire dance with her all down beach the night before he set off on his last this time he went westward because he had fallen on the trail of a great of and he needed at least one hundred pounds of fish a day to keep him in good condition he chased them till he was tired and then he curled himself up and went to sleep on the hollows of the ground swell that sets in to copper island he knew the coast perfectly well so about midnight when he felt himself gently on a weed bed he said hm tide s running strong tonight and turning over under water opened his eyes slowly and stretched then he jumped like a cat for he saw huge things about in the water and on the heavy of the weeds the white seal i i by	39
the great of he said beneath his who in the deep sea are these people they were like no sea lion seal bear whale fish or that had ever seen before they were between twenty and thirty feet long and they had no hind but a like tail that looked as if it had been out of wet leather their heads were the most foolish looking things you ever saw and they balanced on the ends of their tails in deep water when they were n t bowing solemnly to one another and waving their front as a fat man waves his arm said good sport gentlemen the big things answered by bowing and waving their like the footman when they began feeding again saw that their upper lip was split into two pieces that they could apart about a foot and bring together again with a whole of between the they tucked the stuff into their mouths and solemnly style of feeding that said they bowed again and began to lose his temper very good he said if you do happen to have an extra joint in your front the book you need n t show off so i see you bow gracefully but i should like to know your the split lips moved and and the green eyes stared but they did not speak well said you ve the only people he had found sea cow at last i ve ever met than sea and with worse manners then he remembered in a flash what the had screamed to him when he was a little at and he tumbled backward in the water for he knew that he had found sea cow at last the sea cows went on and and in the weed and asked the white seal them questions in every language that he had picked up in his travels and the sea people talk nearly as many languages as human beings but the sea cow did not answer because sea cow cannot talk he has only six bones in his neck where he ought to have seven and they say under the sea that that prevents him from speaking even to his companions but as you know he has an extra joint in his fore and by waving it up and down and about he makes what answers to a sort of clumsy code by daylight s mane was standing on end and his temper was gone where the dead go then the sea cow began to travel northward very slowly stopping to hold absurd bowing from time to time and followed them saying to himself people who are such as these are would have been killed long ago if they had n t found out some safe island and what is good enough for the sea cow is good enough for the sea catch all the same i wish they d hurry it was weary work for the herd never went more than forty or fifty miles a day and stopped to feed at night and kept close to the shore all the time while swam round them and over them and under them but he i the book could not hurry them up one half mile as they went farther north they held a bowing council every few hours and nearly bit off his with impatience till he saw that they were following up a warm current of water and then he respected them more one night they sank through the shiny water sank like stones and for the first time since he had known them began to swim quickly followed and the pace astonished him for he never dreamed that sea cow was anything of a they headed for a cliff by the shore a cliff that ran down into deep water and plunged into a dark hole at the foot of it twenty under the sea it was a long long swim and badly wanted fresh air before he was out of the dark they led him through my wig he said when he rose gasping and puffing into open water at the farther end it was a long but it was worth it the sea cows had separated and were lazily along the edges of the finest that had ever seen there were long stretches of smooth worn rock running for miles exactly fitted to make seal and there were of hard sand sloping inland behind them and there were for to the white seal dance in and long grass to roll in and to climb up and down and best of all knew by the feel of the water which never a true sea catch that no men had ever come there the first thing he did was to assure himself that the fishing was good and then he swam along the and counted up the delightful low sandy islands half hidden in the beautiful rolling fog away to the northward out to sea ran a line of bars and and rocks that would never let a ship come within six miles of the beach and between the islands and the was a stretch of deep water that ran up to the perpendicular cliffs and somewhere below the cliffs was the mouth of the it s over again but ten times better said sea cow must be wiser than i thought men can t come down the cliffs even if there were any men and the to would knock a ship to if any place in the sea is safe this is it he began to think of the seal he had left behind him but though he was in a hurry to go back to he thoroughly the new country so that he would be able to answer all questions i the book then he and made sure of the mouth of the and through to the southward no one but a sea cow or	39
a seal would have dreamed of there being such a place and when he looked back at the cliffs even could hardly believe that he had been under them he was six days going home though he was not swimming slowly and when he hauled out just above sea lion s neck the first person he met was the seal who had been waiting for him and she saw by the look in his eyes that he had found his island at last but the and sea catch his father and all the other laughed at him when he told them what he had discovered and a young seal about his own age said this is all very well but you can t come from no one knows where and order us off like this remember we ve been fighting for our and that s a thing you never did you preferred about in the sea the other laughed at this and the young seal began twisting his head from side to side he had just married that year and was making a great fuss about it i ve no nursery to fight for said i want only to show you all a place where you will be safe what s the use of fighting the white seal oh if you ve trying to back out of course i ve no more to say said the young seal with an ugly chuckle will you come with me if i win said and a green light came into his eyes for he was very angry at having to fight at all very good said the young seal carelessly f you win i come he had no time to change his mind for s head darted out and his teeth sunk in the of the young seal s neck then he threw himself back on his and hauled his enemy down the beach shook him and knocked him over then roared to the i ve done my best for you these five seasons past i ve found you the island where you be safe but unless your heads are dragged off your silly necks you won t believe i m going to teach you now look out for yourselves told me that never in his life and sees ten thousand big fighting every year never in all his little life did he see anything like s charge into the he flung himself at the biggest he could find caught him by the throat choked him and him and him till he for mercy and then threw him aside and attacked the next you see had i the book never for four months as the big did every year and his deep sea swimming kept him in perfect condition and best of all he had never fought before his curly white mane stood up with rage and his eyes and his big and he was splendid to look at old sea catch his father saw him tearing past the old about as though they had been and the young in all directions and sea catch gave one roar and shouted he may be a fool but he is the best on the don t tackle your father my son he s with you roared in answer and old sea catch in his on end blowing like a while and the seal that was going to marry down and admired their men folk it was a gorgeous fight for the two fought as long as there was a seal that dared lift up his head and then they up and down the beach side by side at night just as the northern lights were and flashing through the fog climbed a bare rock and looked down on the scattered and the torn and bleeding now he said i ve taught you your lesson the white seal my wig said old sea catch himself up stiffly for he was fearfully the whale himself could not have cut them up worse son i m proud of you and what s more come with you to your island if there is such a place hear you fat pigs of the sea who comes with me to the sea cow s answer or i shall teach you again roared there was a murmur like the ripple of the tide all up and down the we will come said thousands of tired voices we will follow the white seal then dropped his head between his shoulders and shut his eyes proudly he was not a white seal any more but red from head to tail all the same he would have scorned to look at or touch one of his wounds a week later he and his army nearly ten thousand and old went away north to the sea cow s leading them and the that stayed at called them but next spring when they all met off the fishing banks of the pacific s told such tales of the new beyond sea cow s that more and more left i the book of course it was not all done at once for the need a long time to turn things over in their minds but year by year more went away from and and the other to the quiet sheltered where sits all the summer through getting bigger and and stronger each year while the play round him in that sea where no man comes this is the great deep sea song that all the st paul sing when they are heading back to their in the summer it is a sort of very sad seal national i met my mates in the morning and oh but i am old where roaring on the the summer ground swell rolled i heard them lift the chorus that dropped the song the of two million voices strong the song of pleasant stations beside the salt	39
came to early breakfast in the riding on s shoulder and they gave him and some boiled and he sat on all their one after the other because every well brought up always hopes to be a house some day and have rooms to run about in she used to live in the general s house at had carefully told what to do if ever he came across white men then went out into the garden to see what was to be seen it was a large garden only half cultivated with bushes as big as summer houses of roses lime and orange trees of and of high grass licked his lips this he came to breakfast riding on s shoulder i i is a splendid hunting ground he said and his tail grew bottle at the thought of it and he up and down the garden here and there till he heard very sorrowful voices in a thorn bush we are very miserable said it was the tailor bird and his wife they had made a beautiful nest by pulling two big leaves together and them up the edges with and had filled the hollow with the book cotton and the nest swayed to and fro as they sat on the rim and cried what is the matter asked we are very miserable said one of our babies fell out of the nest yesterday and ate him h m said that is very but i am a stranger here who is and his wife only down in the nest without answering for from the thick grass at the foot of the bush there came a low hiss a horrid cold sound that made jump back two clear feet then inch by inch out of the grass rose up the head and spread hood of the big black and he was five feet long from tongue to tail when he had lifted one third of himself clear of the ground he stayed to and fro exactly as a in the wind and he looked at with the wicked snake s eyes that never change their expression whatever the snake may be thinking of who is he said am the great god put his mark upon all our people when the first spread his hood to keep the sun off as he slept look and be afraid w n o as o w o i c pi he spread out his hood more than ever and saw the spectacle mark on the back of it that looks exactly like the eye part of a hook and eye he was afraid for the minute but it is impossible for a to stay frightened for any length of time and though had never met a live before his mother had fed him on dead ones and he knew that all a grown s business in life was to fight and eat knew that too and at the bottom of his cold heart he was afraid well said and his tail began to up again marks or no marks do you think it is right for you to eat out of a nest was thinking to himself and watching the least little movement in the grass behind he knew that in the garden meant death sooner or later for him and his family but he wanted to get off his guard so he dropped his head a little and put it on one side let us talk he said you eat eggs why should not i eat birds behind you look behind you sang knew better than to waste time in i the book staring he jumped up in the air as high as he could go and just under him by the head of s wicked wife she had crept up behind him as he was talking to make an end of him and he heard her savage hiss as the stroke missed he came down almost across her back and if he had been an old he would have known that then was the time to break her back with one bite but he was afraid of the terrible return stroke of the he bit indeed but did not bite long enough and he jumped clear of the tail leaving torn and angry wicked wicked said up as high as he could reach toward the nest in the thorn bush but had built it out of reach of and it only swayed to and fro felt his eyes growing red and hot when a s eyes row red he is angry and he sat back on his tail and hind legs like a little and looked all around him and with rage but and had disappeared into the grass when a snake its stroke it never says anything or gives any sign of what it means to do next did not care to follow them for he did not feel sure that he could manage two at once so he trotted off to the gravel path near the house and sat down to think it was a serious matter for him if you read the old books of natural history you will find they say that when the fights the snake and happens to get bitten he runs off and eats some that him that is not true the victory is only a matter of quickness of eye and quickness of foot snake s blow against s jump and as no eye can follow the motion of a snake s head when it strikes that makes things much more wonderful than any magic knew he was a young and it made him all the more pleased to think that he had managed to escape a blow from behind it gave him confidence in himself and when came running down the path was ready to be but just as was stooping something a little in the dust and a	39
but there is no need that we should hunt for afterward i will kill the big man and his wife and the child if i can and come away quietly then the will be empty and will go all over with rage and hatred at this and then s head came through the and his five feet of cold body followed it angry as he was was very frightened as he saw the size of the big himself up raised his head and looked into the bath room in the dark and could see his eyes glitter now if i kill him here will know and if i fight him on the open floor the odds are in his favor what am i to do said waved to and fro and then heard him drinking from the biggest water jar that was used to fill the bath that is good the book said the snake now when was killed the big man had a stick he may have that stick still but when he comes in to in the morning he will not have a stick i shall wait here till he comes do you hear me i shall wait here in the cool till there was no answer from outside so knew had gone away himself down by round the at the bottom of the water jar and stayed still as death after an hour he began to move muscle by muscle toward the jar was asleep and looked at his big back wondering which would be the best place for a good hold if i don t break his back at the first jump said he can still fight and if he fights o he looked at the thickness of the neck below the hood but that was too much for him and a bite near the tail would only make savage it must be the head he said at last the head above the hood and when i am once there i must not let go then he jumped the head was lying a little clear of the water jar under the curve of it and as his teeth met his back against the of the red to hold down the head this gave him just one second s purchase and he made the most of it then he was battered to and fro as a rat is shaken by a dog to and fro on the floor up and down and round then was battered to and fro as a rat is shaken by a dog in great circles but his eyes were red and he held on as the body over the floor the tin and the soap dish and the flesh brush and against the tin side of the bath as he held he closed his jaws the book and for he made sure he would be to death and for the honor of his family he preferred to be found with his teeth locked he was dizzy aching and felt shaken to pieces when something went off like a just behind him a hot wind knocked him senseless and red fire his fur the big man had been by the noise and had fired both barrels of a shot gun into just behind the hood held on with his eyes shut for now he was quite sure he was dead but the head did not move and the big man picked him up and said it s the again the little chap has saved our lives now then s mother came in with a very white face and saw what was left of and dragged himself to s bedroom and spent half the rest of the night shaking himself tenderly to find out whether he really was broken into forty pieces as he fancied when morning came he was very stiff but well pleased with his doings now i have to settle with and she will be worse than five and there s no knowing when the eggs she spoke of will goodness i must go and see he said without waiting for breakfast ran to the thorn bush where was singing a song of triumph at the top of his voice the news of s death was all over the garden for the had thrown the body on the rubbish heap oh you stupid of feathers said angrily is this the time to sing is dead is dead is dead sang the caught him by the head and held fast the big man brought the bang stick and fell in two pieces he will never eat my babies again all that s true enough but where s said looking carefully round him came to the bath room and called for went on and came out on the end of a stick the picked him up on the end of a stick and threw him upon the rubbish heap let us sing about the great the red eyed and filled his throat and sang if i could get up to your nest i d roll all your babies out said you don t know when to do the right thing at the right time you re safe enough in your nest there but it s war for me down here stop singing a minute for the great the beautiful s the book sake i will stop said what is it o of the terrible where is for the third time on the rubbish heap by the stables mourning for great is with the white teeth bother my white teeth have you ever heard where she keeps her eggs in the bed on the end nearest the wall where the sun strikes nearly all day she had them there weeks ago and you never thought it worth while to tell me the end nearest the wall you said you are not going to eat her eggs not eat	39
backward again flew aud again and again she struck and each time her head came with a on the of the and she gathered herself together like a watch spring then danced in a circle to get behind down the path with behind her o the book her and spun round to keep her head to his head so that the rustle of her tail on the sounded like dry leaves blown along by the wind he had forgotten the egg it still lay on the and came nearer and nearer to it till at last while was drawing breath she caught it in her mouth turned to the steps and flew like an arrow down the path with behind her when the runs for her life she goes like a across a horse s neck knew that he must catch her or all the trouble would begin again she headed straight for the long grass by the thorn bush and as he was running heard still singing his foolish little song of triumph but s wife was wiser she flew off her nest as came along and her wings about s head if had helped they might have turned her but only lowered her hood and went on still the instant s delay brought up to her and as she plunged into the rat hole where she and used to live his little white teeth were clenched on her tail and he went down with her and very few however wise and old they may be care to follow a into its hole it was dark in the hole and never knew when it might open out and give room to turn and strike at him he held on savagely and struck out his feet to act as on the dark slope of the hot moist earth then the grass by the mouth of the hole stopped waving and said it is all over with we must sing his is dead for will surely kill him so he sang a very mournful song that he made up all on the spur of the minute and just as he got to the most touching part the grass quivered again and covered with dirt dragged himself out of the hole leg by leg his whiskers stopped with a little shout shook some of the dust out of his fur and it is all over he said the widow will never come out again and the red that live between the grass stems heard him and began to troop down one after another to see if he had spoken the truth curled himself up in the grass and slept where he was slept and slept till it was late in the afternoon for he had done a hard day s work io the book now he said when he awoke i will go back to the house tell the and he will tell the garden that is dead the is a bird who makes a noise u w it is all over exactly like the beating of a little hammer on a copper pot and the reason he is always making it is because he is the town to every indian garden and tells all the news to everybody who cares to listen as went up the path he heard his attention notes hke a tiny and then the steady is dead is dead that set all the birds in the garden singing and the for and used to eat as well as little x birds when got to the house and s mother she looked very white still for she had been fainting and s father came out and almost cried over him and that night he ate all that was given him till he could eat no more and went to bed on s shoulder where s mother saw him when she came to look late at night he saved our lives and s life she said to her husband just think he saved all our lives woke up with a jump for all the are light oh it s you said he what are you for all the are dead and if they were n t i m here had a right to be proud of himself but he did not grow too proud and he kept that garden as a should keep it with tooth the book and jump and spring and bite till never a dared show its head inside the walls s sung in honor of singer and tailor am i doubled the joys that i know proud of my through the sky proud of the house that i over and under so i my music so i the house that i sing to your again mother oh lift up your head evil that us is slain death in the garden lies dead terror that hid in the roses is impotent flung on the hill and dead who hath delivered us who tell me his nest and his name the the true with of flame the ivory the hunter with of flame give him the thanks of the birds bowing with tail feathers spread praise him with words nay i will praise him instead hear i will sing you the praise of the bottle with of red here interrupted and the rest of the song is lost of the i will remember what i was i am sick of rope and chain i will remember my old strength and all my forest affairs i will not sell my back to man for a bundle of sugar cane i will go out to my own kind and the wood folk in their i will go out until the day until the morning break out to the winds kiss the waters clean caress i will forget my ankle ring and snap my stake i will my lost	39
not so good as this hunting in the said big thou art a boy and as wild as a calf this running up and down among the hills is not the best government service i am getting old and i do not love wild give me brick one stall to each elephant and big to tie them to safely and flat broad roads to exercise upon instead of this come and go the were good there was a close by and only three hours work a day little remembered the elephant lines and said nothing he very much preferred the camp life and hated those broad flat roads with the daily for grass in the reserve and the long hours when there was nothing to do except to watch in his what little liked was to scramble up bridle paths that only an elephant could take the dip into the valley below the glimpses of of the the wild miles away the rush of the frightened pig and under s feet the blinding warm rains when all the hills and valleys smoked the beautiful misty mornings when nobody knew where they would camp that night the steady cautious drive of the wild and the mad rush and blaze and of the last night s drive when the poured into the like in a found that they could not get but and flung themselves at the heavy posts only to be driven back by and and of blank even a little boy could be of use there and was as useful as three boys he would get his torch and wave it and yell with the best but the really good time came when the driving out began and the that is the looked like a picture of the end of the world and men had to make signs to one another because they could not hear themselves speak then little would climb up to the top of one of the quivering posts his sun brown hair flying loose all over his shoulders and he looking like a in the torch light and as soon as there was a lull you could hear his high pitched of encouragement to the book above the and crashing and snapping of ropes and groans of the mail mail go on go on black snake do give him the careful careful mar hit him hit him mind the post hai a ah he would shout and the big fight between and the wild elephant would sway to and fro across the and the old elephant would wipe the sweat out of their eyes and find time to nod to little with joy on the top of the posts he did more than one night he slid down from the post and slipped in between the and threw up the loose end of a rope which had dropped to a driver who was trying to get a purchase on the leg of a kicking young calf always give more trouble than animals saw him caught him in his trunk and handed him up to big who him then and there and put him back on the post next morning he gave him a scolding and said are not good brick elephant lines and a little tent carrying enough that thou must needs go elephant catching on thy own account little of the worthless now those foolish hunters whose pay is less than my pay have spoken to of the matter little was frightened he did not know much of white men but was the greatest white man in the world to him he was the head of all the operations the man who caught all the for the government of india and who knew more about the ways of than any living man what what will happen said little happen the worst that can happen is a madman else why should he go hunting these wild devils he may even require thee to be an elephant to sleep anywhere in these fever filled and at last to be trampled to death in the it is well that this nonsense ends safely next week the catching is over and we of the plains are sent back to our stations then we will march on smooth roads and forget all this hunting but son i am angry that thou in the business that belongs to these dirty will obey none but me so i must go with him into the but he is only a fighting elephant and he does not help to the book rope them so i sit at my ease as a not a mere hunter a i say and a man who gets a at the end of his service is the family of of the to be trodden in the dirt of a bad one wicked one worthless son go and wash and attend to his ears and see that there are no thorns in his feet or else will surely catch thee and make thee a wild hunter a of elephant s foot tracks a bear shame go little went off without saying a word but he told all his while he was examining his feet no matter said little turning up the fringe of huge right ear they have said my name to and perhaps and perhaps and perhaps who knows hai that is a big thorn that i have pulled out the next few days were spent in getting the together in walking the newly caught wild up and down between a couple of tame ones to prevent them from giving too much trouble on the downward march to the plains and in taking stock of the blankets and ropes and things that had been worn out or lost in the forest of the came in on his clever he had been paying off other among the hills for the season	39
was coming to an end and there was a native clerk sitting at a table under a tree to pay the drivers their wages as each man was paid he went back to his elephant and joined the line that stood ready to start the and hunters and the men of the regular who stayed in the year in and year out sat on the backs of the that belonged to s permanent force or leaned against the trees with their guns across their arms and made fun of the drivers who were going away and laughed when the newly caught broke the line and ran about big went up to the clerk with little behind him and the said in an to a friend of his there goes one piece of good at least t is a pity to send that young cock to in the plains now had ears all over him as a man must have who to the most silent of all living things the wild elephant he turned where he was lying all along on s back and said what is that i did not the book know of a man among the plain drivers who had wit enough to rope even a dead elephant this is not a man but a boy he went into the at the last drive and threw there the rope when we were trying to get that young calf with the on his shoulder away from his mother pointed at little and looked and little bowed to the earth he throw a rope he is smaller than a pin little one what is thy name said little was too frightened to speak but was behind him and made a sign with his hand and the elephant caught him up in his trunk and held him level with s forehead in front of the great then little covered his face with his hands for he was only a child and except where were concerned he was just as as a child could be said smiling underneath his and why thou teach thy elephant that trick was it to help thee steal green corn from the roofs of the houses when the ears are put out to dry not green corn protector of the poor said little of the not green corn protector of the poor said little and all the men sitting about broke into a roar of laughter most of them had taught their that trick when they were boys little was hanging eight feet up in the air and he wished very much that he were eight feet he is my son said big he is a very bad boy and he will end in a jail of that i have my doubts said a boy who can face a full at his age does not end in see little one here are four to spend in because thou hast a little head under that great of hair in time thou may est become a hunter too big more than ever remember though that are not good for children to play in went on must i never go there asked little with a big gasp yes smiled again when thou hast seen the dance that is the proper time come to me when thou hast seen the dance and then i will let thee go into all the the book there was another roar of laughter for that is an old joke among elephant and it means just never there are great cleared flat places hidden away in the forests that are called but even these are found only by accident and no man has ever seen the dance when a driver of his skill and bravery the other drivers say and when thou see the dance put little down and he bowed to the earth again and went away with his father and gave the silver four piece to his mother who was nursing his baby brother and they all were put up on s back and the line of rolled down the hill path to the plains it was a very lively march on account of the new who gave trouble at every ford and who needed or beating every other minute big for he was very angry but little was too happy to speak had noticed him and given him money so he felt as a private soldier would feel if he had been called out of the ranks and praised by his commander in chief what did mean by the elephant dance he said at last softly to his mother of the big heard him and that thou never be one of these hill of that was what he meant oh you in front what is the way an driver two or three ahead turned round angrily crying bring up and knock this of mine into good behavior why should have chosen me to go down with you of the rice fields lay your beast alongside and let him with his by all the gods of the hills these new are possessed or else they can smell their companions in the hit the new elephant in the ribs and knocked the wind out of him as big said we have swept the hills of wild at the last catch it is only your carelessness in driving must i keep order along the whole line hear him said the other driver we have swept the hills ho ho you are very wise you plains people any one but a who never saw the would know that they know that the drives are ended for the season therefore all the wild tonight will but why should i waste wisdom on a river the book what will they do little called out one art thou there well i will tell thee for thou hast a cool head they will dance and it thy	39
father who has swept all the hills of all the to double chain his to night what talk is this said big for forty years father and son we have tended and we have never heard such about dances yes but a plains man who lives in a hut knows only the four walls of his hut well leave thy to night and see what comes as for their dancing i have seen the place where how many has the river here is another ford and we must swim the stop still you behind there and in this way talking and and through the rivers they made their first march to a sort of receiving camp for the new but they lost their long before they got there then the were chained by their hind legs to their big of and extra ropes were fitted to the new and the of the was piled before them and the hill drivers went back to through the afternoon light telling the plains drivers to be extra careful that night and laughing when the asked the reason little attended to s supper and as evening fell wandered through the camp happy in search of a tom tom when an indian child s heart is full he does not run about and make a noise in an irregular fashion he sits down to a sort of all by himself and little had been spoken to by if he had not found what he wanted i believe he would have burst but the in the camp lent him a little tom tom a drum beaten with the flat of the hand and he sat down cross legged before as the stars began to come out the in his lap and he and he and he and the more he thought of the great honor that had been done to him the more he all alone among the elephant there was no tune and no words but the made him happy the new strained at their ropes and and from time to time and he could hear his mother in the camp hut putting the book his small brother to sleep with an old old song about the great god who once told all the animals what they should eat it is a very soothing and the first verse says who poured the harvest and made the winds to blow sitting at the of a day of long ago gave to each his portion food and toil and fate from the king upon the to the beggar at the gate all things made he the he made all thorn for the for the and mother s heart for sleepy head o little son of mine little came in with a joyous a at the end of each verse till he felt sleepy and stretched himself on the at s side at last the began to lie down one after another as is their custom till only at the right of the line was left standing up and he rocked slowly from side to side his ears put forward to listen to the night wind as it blew very slowly across the hills the air was full of all the night noises that taken together make one big silence the click of one stem against the other the rustle of something alive in the the scratch and of a half bird birds are awake in the night of the much more often than we imagine and the fall of water ever so far away little slept for some time and when he it was brilliant moonlight and was still standing up with his ears cocked little turned rustling in the and watched the curve of his big back against half the stars in heaven and while he watched he heard so far away that it sounded no more than a of noise pricked through the stillness the of a wild elephant all the in the lines jumped up as if they had been shot and their at last the sleeping and they came out and drove in the with big and this rope and knotted that till all was quiet one new elephant had nearly up his and big took off s leg chain and that elephant fore foot to hind foot but slipped a of round s leg and told him to remember that he was tied fast he knew that he and his father and his grandfather had done the very same thing hundreds of times before did not answer to the order by as he usually did he stood still looking out across the moonlight his head a little raised the book and his ears spread like up to the great folds of the hills look to him if he grows restless in the night said big to little and he went into the hut and slept little was just going to sleep too when he heard the string snap with a little and rolled out of his as slowly and as silently as a cloud rolls out of the mouth of a valley little after him down the road in the moonlight calling under his breath take me with you o the elephant turned without a sound took three strides back to the boy in the moonlight put down his trunk swung him up to his neck and almost before little had settled his knees slipped into the forest there was one blast of furious from the lines and then the silence shut down on everything and began to move sometimes a of high grass washed along his sides as a wave along the sides of a ship and sometimes a cluster of wild vines would scrape along his back or a would where his shoulder touched it but between those times he moved absolutely without of the any sound drifting through the thick forest as though	39
it had been smoke he was going but though little watched the stars in the of the trees he could not tell in what direction then reached the crest of the ascent and stopped for a minute and little could see the tops of the trees lying all and under the moonlight for miles and miles and the blue white mist over the river in the hollow leaned forward and looked and he felt that the forest was awake below him awake and alive and crowded a big brown fruit eating bat brushed past his ear a s rattled in the thicket and in the darkness between the tree stems he heard a digging hard in the moist warm earth and as it then the branches closed over his head again and began to go down into the valley not quietly this time but as a gun goes down a steep bank in one rush the huge limbs moved as steadily as eight feet to each stride and the wrinkled skin of the elbow points the on side of him with a noise like torn canvas and the that he heaved away right and the book left with his shoulders sprang back again and him on the flank and great of all together hung from his as he threw his head from side to side and out his pathway then little laid himself down close to the great neck lest a swinging bough should sweep him to the ground and he wished that he were back in the lines again the grass began to get and s feet sucked and as he put them down and the night mist at the bottom of the valley chilled little there was a splash and a and the rush of running water and strode through the bed of a river feeling his way at each step above the noise of the water as it round the elephant s legs little could hear more and some both up stream and down great and angry and all the mist about him seemed to be full of rolling shadows air he said half aloud his teeth chattering the elephant folk are out to night it is the dance then out of the water blew his trunk clear and began another climb but this time he was not alone and he had not to make his of the path that was made already six feet wide in front of him where the bent grass was trying to recover itself and stand up many must have gone that way only a few minutes before little looked back and behind him a great wild with his little pig s eyes glowing like hot coals was just lifting himself out of the misty river then the trees closed up again and they went on and up with and and the sound of breaking branches on every side of them at last stood still between two at the very top of the hill they were part of a circle of trees that grew round an irregular space of some three or four acres and in all that space as little could see the ground had been trampled down as hard as a brick floor some trees grew in the of the clearing but their bark was rubbed away and the white wood beneath showed all shiny and polished in the patches of moonlight there were hanging from the upper branches and the bells of the flowers of the great white things like hung down fast asleep but within the limits of the clearing there was not a single blade of green nothing but the trampled earth the book the moonlight showed it all iron gray except where some stood upon it and their shadows were black little looked holding his breath with his eyes starting out of his head and as he looked more and more and more swung out into the open from between the tree trunks little could count only up to ten and he counted again and again on his fingers till he lost count of the and his head began to swim outside the clearing he could hear them crashing in the as they worked their way up the but as soon as they were within the circle of the tree trunks they moved like ghosts there were white wild with fallen leaves and nuts and twigs lying in the wrinkles of their necks and the folds of their ears fat slow footed she with restless little black only three or four feet high running under their young with their just beginning to show and very proud of them with their hollow anxious faces and trunks like rough bark savage old bull from shoulder to flank with great and cuts of fights and the dirt of their solitary mud dropping from of the their shoulders and there was one with a broken and the marks of the full stroke the terrible drawing scrape of a tiger s claws on his side they were standing head to head or walking to and fro across the ground in couples or rocking and swaying all by themselves scores and scores of knew that so long as he lay still on s neck nothing would happen to him for even in the rush and scramble of a a wild elephant does not reach up with his trunk and drag a man off the neck of a tame elephant and these were not thinking of men that night once they started and put their ears forward when they heard the of a leg iron in the forest but it was s pet elephant her chain snapped short off up the she must have broken her and come straight from s camp and little saw another elephant one that he did not know with deep rope on his back and breast he too must have run away	39
from some camp in the hills about at last there was no sound of any more moving in the forest and rolled out from his station between the trees and went the book into the middle of the crowd and and all the began to talk in their own tongue and to move about still lying down little looked down upon scores and scores of broad backs and ears and tossing trunks and little rolling eyes he heard the click of as they crossed other by accident and the dry rustle of trunks together and the of enormous sides and shoulders in the crowd and the incessant and of the great tails then a cloud came over the moon and he sat in black darkness but the quiet steady and pushing and went on just the same he knew that there were all round and that there was no chance of him out of the assembly so he set his teeth and shivered in a at least there was torch light and shouting but here he was all alone in the dark and once a trunk came up and touched him on the knee then an elephant and they all took it up for five or ten terrible seconds the dew from the trees above down like rain on the unseen backs and a dull noise began not very loud at first and little could not tell what it was but it grew and grew and lifted up one fore foot and then little looked down upon scores and scores of broad backs of the the other and brought them down on the ground one two one two as steadily as trip the were stamping altogether now and it sounded like a war drum beaten at the mouth of a cave the dew fell from the trees till there was no more left to fall and the went on and the ground rocked and shivered and little put his hands up to his ears to shut out the sound but it was all one gigantic jar that ran through him this stamp of hundreds of heavy feet on the raw earth once or twice he could feel and all the others forward a few strides and the would change to the crushing sound of green things being bruised but in a minute or two the boom of feet on hard earth began again a tree was creaking and groaning somewhere near him he put out his arm and felt the bark but moved forward still and he could not tell where he was in the clearing there was no sound from the except once when two or three little together then he heard a and a and the went on it must have lasted fully two hours and little ached in every nerve but he knew by the smell of the night air that the dawn was coming the book the morning broke in one sheet of pale yellow behind the green hills and the stopped with the first ray as though the light had been an order before little had got the ringing out of his head before even he had shifted his position there was not an elephant in sight except and the with the rope and there was neither sign nor rustle nor whisper down the to show where the others had gone little stared again and again the clearing as he remembered it had grown in the night more trees stood in the middle of it but the and the grass at the sides had been rolled back little stared once more now he understood the the had stamped out more room had stamped the thick grass and cane to the into the into tiny and the into hard earth said little and his eyes were very heavy my lord let us keep by and go to s camp or i shall drop from thy neck the third elephant watched the two go away wheeled round and took his own path he may have belonged to some little native of the king s establishment fifty or sixty or a hundred miles away two hours later as was eating early breakfast his who had been double chained that night began to trumpet and to the shoulders with very foot sore into the camp little s face was gray and pinched and his hair was full of leaves and with dew but he tried to salute and cried faintly the dance the elephant dance i have seen it and i die as sat down he slid off his neck in a dead faint but since native children have no nerves worth speaking of in two hours he was lying very in s with s shooting coat under his head and a glass of warm milk a little brandy with a dash of inside of him and while the old hairy hunters of the sat three deep before him looking at him as though he were a spirit he told his tale in short words as a child will and wound up with now if i lie in one word send men to see and they will find that the elephant folk have trampled down more room in their dance room and they will find ten and ten and many times the book ten tracks leading to that dance room they made more room with their feet i have seen it took me and i saw also is very leg weary little lay back and slept all through the long afternoon and into the twilight and while he slept and followed the track of the two for fifteen miles across the hills had spent eighteen years in catching and he had only once before found such a dance place had no need to look twice at the clearing to see what had been done there or to scratch with his toe in the packed	39
earth the child speaks truth said he all this was done last night and i have counted seventy tracks crossing the river see where s leg iron cut the bark of that tree yes she was there too they looked at each other and up and down and they wondered for the ways of are beyond the wit of any man black or white to forty years and five said have i followed my lord the elephant but never have i heard that any child of man had seen what this child has seen by all the gods of the of the hills it is what can we say and he shook his head when they got back to camp it was time for the evening meal ate alone in his tent but he gave orders that the camp should have two sheep and some fowls as well as a double of flour and rice and salt for he knew that there would be a feast big had come up hot foot from the camp in the plains to search for his son and his elephant and now that he had found them he looked at them as though he were afraid of them both and there was a feast by the blazing in front of the lines of and little was the hero of it all and the big brown elephant the and drivers and and the men who know all the secrets of breaking the wildest passed him from one to the other and they marked his forehead with blood from the breast of a newly killed cock to show that he was a and free of all the and at last when the flames died down and the red light of the logs made the look as though they had been dipped in blood too the head of all the drivers of all the s the book other self who had never seen a made road in forty years who was so great that he had no other name than leaped to his feet with little held high in the air above his head and shouted listen my brothers listen too you my lords in the lines there for i am speaking this little one shall no more be called little but of the as his great grandfather was called before him what never man has seen he has seen through the long night and the favor of the elephant folk and of the gods of the is with him he shall become a great he shall become greater than i even i he shall follow the new trail and the stale trail and the mixed trail with a clear eye he shall take no harm in the when he runs under their to rope the wild and if he slips before the feet of the charging bull elephant that bull elephant shall know who he is and shall not crush him my lords in the chains he whirled up the line of here is the little one that has seen your dances in your hidden places the sight that never man saw give him honor my lords my children make your salute to of the of the thou hast seen him at the dance and thou too my pearl among together to of the and at that last wild yell the whole line flung up their trunks till the tips touched their and broke out into the full salute the crashing trumpet peal that only the of india hears the of the but it was all for the sake of little who had seen what never man had seen before the dance of the at night and alone in the heart of the hills and the the song that s mother sang to the baby who poured the harvest and made the winds to blow sitting at the of a day of long ago gave to each his portion food and toil and fate from the king upon to the beggar at the gate all things made he the he made all thorn for the for the and mother s heart for sleepy head o little son of mine the book wheat he gave to rich folk to the poor broken scraps for holy men that beg from door to door cattle to the tiger to the and rags and bones to wicked wolves without the wall at night naught he found too lofty none he saw too low beside him watched them come and go thought to cheat her husband turning to jest stole the little and hid it in her breast so she the turn and see tall are the heavy are the but this was least of little things o little son of mine i when the was ended she said master of a million mouths is not one laughing made answer a have had their part even he the little one hidden thy heart from her breast she plucked it the thief saw the least of little things a new grown leaf saw and feared and wondered making prayer to who hath surely given meat to all that live all things made he the i he made all thorn for the for the a nd mother s heart for sleepy head o little son of mine i her majesty s servants you can work it out by or by simple rule of three but the way of is not the way of you can twist it you can turn it you can it till you drop but the way of s not the way of pop s r v her majesty s servants it had been heavily for one whole month on a camp of thirty thousand men thousands of horses and all gathered together at a place called to be by the of india	39
he up at me next time i have to go over a man lying down i shall step on him hard h m said it sounds very foolish knives are dirty things at any time the proper thing to do is to climb up a mountain with a well balanced saddle hang on by all four feet and your ears too and creep and crawl and along till you come out hundreds of feet the man was lying on the ground and i stretched myself not to tread on him and he up at me her majesty s servants above any one else on a ledge where there s just room enough for your hoofs then you stand still and keep quiet never ask a man to hold your head young un keep quiet while the guns are being put together and then you watch the little shells drop down into the ever so far below don t you ever trip said the troop horse they say that when a mule you can split a hen s ear said now and again per a badly packed saddle will upset a mule but it s very seldom i wish i could show you our business it s beautiful why it took me three years to find out what the men were driving at the science of the thing is never to show up against the sky line because if you do you may get fired at remember that young un always keep hidden as much as possible even if you have to go a mile out of your way i lead the battery when it comes to that sort of climbing fired at without the chance of running into the people who are firing said the troop horse thinking hard i could n t stand that i should want to charge with dick oh no you would n t you know that as soon as the guns are in position they v do all the book the charging that s scientific and neat but knives the baggage had been his head to and fro for some time past anxious to get a word in then i heard him say as he cleared his throat nervously i i i have fought a little but not in that climbing way or that running way no now you mention it said you don t look as though you were made for climbing or running much well how was it old hay the proper way said the we all sat down oh my and said the troop horse under his breath sat down we sat down a hundred of us the went on mn a big square and the men piled our and outside the square and they fired over our backs the men did on all sides of the square what sort of men any men that came along said the troop horse they teach us in riding school to lie down and let our masters fire across us but dick is the only man i d trust to do that it my and besides i can t see with my head on the ground her majesty s servants what does it matter who fires across you said the there are plenty of men and plenty of other close by and a great many clouds of smoke i am not frightened then i sit still and wait and yet said you dream bad dreams and upset the camp at night well well before i d lie down not to speak of sitting down and let a man fire across me my heels and his head would have something to say to each other did you ever hear anything so awful as that there was a long silence and then one of the gun lifted up his big head and said this is very foolish indeed there is only one way of fighting oh go on said please don t mind me i suppose you fellows fight standing on your tails only one way said the two together they must have been this is that way to put all twenty yoke of us to the big gun as soon as two tails trumpets two tails is camp for the elephant what does two tails trumpet for said the young mule to show that he is not going any nearer to the smoke on the other side two tails is a the book great coward then we the big gun all together hey a we do not climb like cats nor run like we go across the level plain twenty yoke of us till we are again and we while the big guns talk across the plain to some town with mud walls and pieces of the wall fall out and the dust goes up as though many cattle were coming home oh and you choose that time for do you said the young mule that time or any other eating is always good we eat till we are up again and the gun back to where two tails is waiting for it sometimes there are big guns in the city that speak back and some of us are killed and then there is all the more for those that are left this is fate nothing but fate none the less two tails is a great coward that is the proper way to fight we are brothers from our father was a sacred bull of we have spoken i ve certainly learned something tonight said the troop horse do you gentlemen of the screw gun battery feel inclined to eat when you are being fired at with big guns and two tails is behind you her majesty s servants about as much as we feel inclined to sit down and let men all over us or run into people with knives i never heard	39
such stuff a mountain ledge a well balanced load a driver you can trust to let you pick your own way and i m your mule but the other things no said with a stamp of his foot of course said the troop horse every one is not made in the same way and i can quite see that your family on your father s side would fail to understand a great many things never you mind my family on my father s side said angrily for every mule hates to be reminded that his father was a donkey my father was a southern gentleman and he could pull down and bite and kick into rags every horse he came across remember that you big brown means wild horse without any breeding imagine the feelings of if a called her a and you can imagine how the horse felt i saw the white of his eye glitter in the dark see here you son of an imported he said between his teeth i d have you know that i m related on my mother s side to of the cup and the book where come from we are n t accustomed to being ridden over by any pig headed mule in a pop gun battery are you ready on your hind legs they both reared up facing each other and i was expecting a furious fight when a voice called out of the darkness to the right children what are you fighting about there be quiet both beasts dropped down with a of disgust for neither horse nor mule can bear to listen to an elephant s voice it s two tails said the troop horse i can t stand him a tail at each end is n t fair my feelings exactly said crowding into the troop horse for company we re very alike in some things i suppose we ve inherited them from our mothers said the troop horse it s not worth about hi two tails are you tied up yes said two tails with a laugh all up his trunk i m for the night i ve heard what you fellows have been saying but don t be afraid i m not coming over the and the said half aloud her majesty s servants afraid of two tails what nonsense and the went on we are sorry that you heard but it is true two tails why are you afraid of the guns when they fire well said two tails rubbing one hind leg against the other exactly like a little boy saying a piece i don t quite know whether you d understand we don t but we have to pull the guns said the i know it and i know you are a good deal than you think you are but it s different with me my battery captain called me a the other day that s another way of fighting i suppose said who was recovering his spirits vou don t know what that means of course but i do it means and between and that is just where i am i can see inside my head what will happen when a shell bursts and you can t i can said the troop horse at least a little bit i try not to think about it i can see more than you and i do think about it i know there s a great deal of me to take care of and i know that nobody knows how to cure me when i m sick all they can do is to the book stop my driver s pay till i get well and i can t trust my driver ah said the troop horse that explains it i can trust dick you could put a whole regiment of on my back without making me feel any better i know just enough to be uncomfortable and not enough to go on in spite of it we do not understand said the i know you don t i m not talking to you you don t know what blood is we do said the it is red stuff that into the ground and smells the troop horse gave a kick and a bound and a don t talk of it he said i can smell it now just thinking of it it makes me want to run when i have n t dick on my back but it is not here said the and the why are you so stupid it s vile stuff said i don t want to run but i don t want to talk about it there you are said two tails waving his tail to explain surely yes we have been here all night said the two tails stamped his foot till the iron ring her majesty s servants on it oh i m not talking to you you can t see inside your heads no we see out of our four eyes said the we see straight in front of us if i could do that and nothing else you would n t be needed to pull the big guns at all if i was like my captain he can see things inside his head before the firing begins and he shakes all over but he knows too much to run away if i was like him i could pull the guns but if i were as wise as all that i should never be here i should be a king in the forest as i used to be sleeping half the day and bathing when i liked i have n t had a good bath for a month that s all very fine said but giving a thing a long name does n t make it any better h sh said the troop horse i think i understand what two tails means	39
and most of all living things and it is to touch him they say too and it is true that man become and lose their teeth the grew louder and ended in the of the tiger s charge then there was a howl an howl from he has missed said mother wolf what father wolf ran out a few paces and heard muttering and savagely as he tumbled about in the the fool has had no more sense than to jump at a camp fire and has burned his feet said father wolf with a is with him the book something is coming up hill said mother wolf one ear get ready the bushes a little in the thicket and father wolf dropped with his under him ready for his leap then if you had been watching you would have seen the most wonderful thing in the world the wolf checked in mid spring he made his bound before he saw what it was he was jumping at and then he tried to stop himself the result was that he shot up straight into the air for four or five feet landing almost where he left ground man he snapped a man s look directly in front of him holding on by a low branch stood a naked brown baby who could just walk as soft and as a little as ever came to a cave at night he looked up into father face and laughed is that a man s said mother wolf i have never seen one bring it here a wolf accustomed to moving his own can if necessary mouth an egg without breaking it and though father jaws closed right on the child s back not a tooth even scratched the skin as he laid it down among the how little how naked and how bold said mother wolf softly the baby was pushing his way between the to get close to the warm hide he is taking his meal with the others and so this is a man s now was there ever a wolf that could boast of a man s among her children i have heard now and again of such a thing but never in our pack or in my time said father wolf he is altogether without hair and i could kill him brothers with a touch of my foot but see he looks up and is not afraid the moonlight was blocked out of the mouth of the cave for s great square head and shoulders were thrust into the entrance behind him was my lord my lord it went in here does us great honour said father wolf but his eyes were very angry what does need my a man s went this way said its parents have run off give it to me had jumped at a as father wolf had said and was furious from the pain of his burned feet but father wolf knew that the mouth of the cave was too narrow for a tiger to come in by even where he was s shoulders and fore were cramped for want of room as a man s would be if he tried to fight in a barrel the wolves are a free people said father wolf they take orders from the head of the pack and not from any striped cattle the man s is ours to kill if we choose ye choose and ye do not choose what talk is this of choosing by the bull that i killed am i to stand into your dog s den for my fair it is i who speak the tiger s roar filled the cave with thunder mother wolf shook herself clear of the and sprang forward her eyes like two green in the darkness facing the blazing eyes of s brothers and it is i the demon who answer he man s is mine mine to me he not be killed he shall live to run with the pack and to hunt with the pack and in the end you hunter of little naked oh he shall hunt thee now get hence or by the that i killed eat no starved cattle back thou to thy mother burned beast of the than ever thou into the world go father wolf looked on amazed he had almost forgotten the days when he won mother wolf in fair fight from five other wolves when she ran in the pack and was not called the demon for compliment s sake might have faced father wolf but he could not st nd up against mother wolf for he knew that where he was she had all the advantage of the ground and would fight to the death so he backed out of the cave mouth growling and when he was clear he shouted each dog in his own yard we will see what the pack will say to this of man the is mine and to my teeth he will come in the end o bush thieves mother wolf threw herself down panting among the and father wolf said to her gravely speaks this truth the must be shown to the pack wilt thou still keep him mother keep him she gasped he came naked by night alone and very hungry yet he was not afraid look he has pushed one of my to one side already and that lame butcher would have killed lo the book him and would have run off to the the villagers here hunted through all our in revenge keep him assuredly i will keep l lie still little o thou for thi i will call thee the time will come when thou wilt hunt as he has hunted thee but what will our pack say said father wolf the law of the lays down very clearly	39
that is thy enemy as many times as there are nuts on that palm said who naturally could not count what of it i am sleepy and is all long tail and loud talk like the but this is no time for sleeping knows it i know it the pack know it and even the foolish foolish deer know has told thee too ho ho said came to me not long ago with some rude talk that i was a naked man s and not fit to dig pig nuts but i caught by the tail and swung him twice against a palm tree to teach him better manners that was foolishness for though is a mischief maker he would have told thee of something that concerned thee closely open those eyes little brother dare not kill thee in the but remember 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 brought to the council first are old too and the young wolves believe as has taught them that a has no place with the pack in a little time thou wilt be a man and what is a man that he should not run with his brothers said i was born in the i have obeyed the law of the and there is no wolf of ours from whose i have not pulled a thorn surely they are my brother s the book stretched himself at full length and half shut his eyes little brother said he feel under my jaw put up his strong brown hand and just under s chin where the giant rolling muscles were all hid by the glossy hair he came upon a little bald spot there is no one in the that knows that i carry that mark the mark of the collar and yet little brother i was born among men and it was among men that my mother died in the of the king s palace at it was because of this that i paid the price for thee at the council when thou a little naked yes i too was born among men i had never seen the they fed me behind bars from an iron pan till one night i felt that i was the and no man s and i broke the silly lock with one blow of my and came away and because i had learned the ways of men i became more terrible in the than is it not so yes said all the fear all except oh thou art a man s said the black very tenderly and even as i returned to my so thou must go back to men at last to the men who are thy brothers if thou art not killed in the council but why but why should any wish to kill me said look at me said and looked at him steadily between the eyes the big turned his head away in half a minute s brothers i is why he said shifting his on the leaves not 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 feet because thou art a man i did not know these things said sullenly and he frowned under his heavy black eyebrows what is the law of the 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 his next kill and at each hunt it costs him more to pin the buck the pack will turn against him and against thee they will hold a council at the rock and then and then i have it said leaping up go down quickly to the men s huts in the valley and take some of the red flower which they grow there so that when the time comes thou have even a stronger friend than i or or those of the pack that love thee get the red flower by red flower meant fire only no creature in the will call fire by its proper name every beast lives in deadly fear of it and a hundred ways of describing it the red flower said that grows outside their huts in the twilight i will get some there speaks the man s said proudly remember that it grows in little pots get one swiftly and keep it by thee for time of need the book good said i go but art thou sure o my he slipped his arm round the splendid neck and looked deep into the big eyes art thou sure that all this is s doing by the broken lock that freed me i am sure little brother then by the bull that bought me i will pay full tale for this and it may be a little over said and he bounded away that is a man that is all a man said to himself lying down again h never was a hunting than that hunt of thine ten years ago 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 were out but mother wolf at the back of the cave knew by his breathing that something was troubling her what is it son she said some bat s chatter of he called back i hunt among the fields to night and he plunged downward through the bushes to the stream at	39
the bottom of the valley there he checked for he heard the yell of the pack hunting heard the of a hunted and the as the buck turned at bay then there were wicked bitter from the young wolves let the lone wolf show his strength room for the leader of the pack spring the lone wolf must have sprung and missed his hold for heard the snap of his teeth and brothers then a as the knocked him over with his fore foot he did not wait for anything more but dashed on and the grew fainter behind him as he ran into the crop lands where the villagers lived spoke truth he panted as he down in some cattle by the window of a hut to morrow is one day both for and for me then he pressed his face close to the window and watched the fire on the hearth he saw the s wife get up and feed it in the night with black and when the morning came and the mists were all white and cold he saw the man s child pick up a pot inside with earth fill it with of red hot put it under his blanket and go out to tend the cows in the is that all said if a can do it there is nothing to fear 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 they are very like me said blowing into the pot as he had seen the woman do this thing will die if i do not give it things to eat and he dropped twigs and dried bark on the red stuff half way up the hill he met with the morning dew shining like on his coat has missed said the they would have killed him last night but they needed thee also they were looking for thee on the hill i was among the lands i am ready see held up the fire pot good now i have seen men thrust a dry the book branch into that stuff and presently the red flower at the end of it art thou not afraid no why should i fear i remember now if it is not a dream how before i was a wolf i lay beside the red flower and it was warm and pleasant all that day 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 th evening when came to the cave and told him rudely enough that he was wanted at the council rock he laughed till ran away then went to the council still laughing the lone wolf lay by the side of his rock as a sign that the of the pack was open and with his following of scrap fed wolves walked to and fro openly being flattered lay close to and the fire pot was between s knees when they were all gathered together began to speak a thing he would never have dared to do when was in his prime he has no right whispered say so he is a dog s son he will be frightened sprang to his feet free people he cried does lead the pack what has a tiger to do with our seeing that the is yet open and being asked to speak began by whom said are we all to on this cattle butcher the of the pack is with the pack alone there were of silence thou man s s brothers let him speak he has kept our law and at last the of the pack thundered let the dead wolf speak 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 raised his old head wearily free people and ye too of for twelve seasons i have led ye to and from the kill and in all that time not one has been or now i have missed my kill ye know how that plot was made ye know how ye brought me up to an buck to make my weakness known it was cleverly done your right is to kill me 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 that ye come one by one there was a long hush for no single wolf cared to fight to the death then roared what have we to do with this fool he is doomed to die it is the man 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 for ten seasons give me the man or i will hunt here always and not give you one bone he is a man a man s child and from the of my bones i hate him then more than half the pack a man a man what has a man to do with us let him go to his own place and turn all the people of the villages against us no give him to the book me he is a man and none of us can look him between the eyes lifted his head again and said he 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 also i paid for him with a bull when he was accepted the worth of a bull is little but s honour is something that he will perhaps fight for said in his voice a	39
bull paid ten years ago the pack what do we care for bones ten years old or for a pledge said his white teeth under his lip well are ye called the free people no man s can run with the people of the howled give him to me he is our brother in all but blood went on and ye would kill him here in truth i have lived too long some of ye are of cattle and of others i have heard that under s teaching ye go by dark night and snatch children from the s door step therefore i know ye to be and it is to i speak it is certain that i must die and my life is of no worth or i would offer that in the man s place but for the sake of the honour of the pack a little matter that by being without a leader ye have forgotten i promise that if ye let the man 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 brothers shame that comes of a brother against whom there is no fault a brother spoken for and bought into the pack according to the law of the he is a man a man a man the pack and most of the wolves began to gather round whose tail was beginning to now the business is in thy hands said to we can do no more except fight stood upright the 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 wolf like the wolves had never told him how they hated him listen you he cried there is no need for this dog s ye have told me so often to night that i am a man and indeed i would have been a wolf with you to my life s end that i feel your words are true so i do not call ye my brothers any more but 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 he flung the fire pot on the ground and some of the red coals lit a of dried moss that up as all the council drew back in terror before the leaping flames thrust his dead branch into the fire till the twigs lit and and whirled it above his head among the wolves thou art the master said in an save from the death he was ever thy friend the book the grim old wolf who had never asked for mercy in his life gave one piteous look at 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 good said staring round slowly i see that ye are dogs i go from you to my own people if they be my own people the 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 he kicked the fire with his foot and the sparks flew up there shall be no war between any of us in the pack but here is a debt to pay before i go he strode forward to where sat at the flames and caught him by the on his chin followed in case of accidents up dog cried up when a man speaks or i will set that coat s ears lay flat back on his head and he shut his eyes for the blazing branch was very near this cattle said he would kill me in the council because he had not killed me when i was a thus and thus then do we beat dogs when we are men stir a and i ram the red flower down thy he over the head with the branch and the tiger and in an agony of fear cat go now but remember when next i come to the council rock as a man s brothers should come it will be with s hide on my head for the rest 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 out your tongues as though ye were instead of dogs whom i drive out thus go the fire was burning furiously at the end of the branch and struck right and left round the circle and the wolves ran howling with the sparks burning their fur at last there were only and perhaps ten wolves that had taken s part then something began to hurt 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 what is it what is it he said i do not wish to leave the and i do not know what this is am i dying no little brother that is only tears such as men use said now i know thou art a man and a man s no longer the is shut indeed to thee let them fall they are	39
only tears so 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 howled miserably ye will not forget me said never while we can follow a trail said the come to the foot of the hill when thou art a man the book and we 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 come again soon for we be old thy mother and come soon said mother wolf little naked son of mine for listen child of man i loved thee more than ever i loved my i will surely come said and when i come it will be to lay out s hide upon the council rock do not forget me tell them in the never to forget me the dawn was beginning to break when went down the alone to meet those mysterious things that are called men r t hunting song of the pack hunting song of the pack as the dawn was breaking the once twice and again and a leaped up and a leaped up from the pond in the wood where the wild deer sup this i alone beheld once twice and again as the dawn was breaking the 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 on his track once twice and again i as the dawn was breaking the wolf pack once twice and again j feet in the that leave no mark i eyes that can see in the dark the dark tongue give tongue to it hark o hark once twice and again s hunting his spots are the joy of he his are the s be clean for the strength of the hunter is known by the of his hide if ye that the can toss you or the can ye need not stop work to inform us we knew it seasons before not the of the stranger but hail hem as sister and brother for though arc little and it may be he bear is their mother there is none like to me i says the in be pride of his earliest kill but be is large and be be is small let him and be still a all that is told here happened some time before was turned out of the wolf pack or himself on the tiger it was in the days when was teaching him the law of the 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 the as i s hunting 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 and sharp white teeth all these things are the marks of our brothers except the and the whom we hate but as a man had to learn a great deal more than this sometimes the black would come lounging through the to see how his pet was getting on and would with his head against a tree while the day s lesson to the boy could climb almost as well as he could swim and swim almost as well as he could run so the teacher of the law taught him the wood and water laws how to tell a rotten branch from a sound one how to speak politely to the wild bees when he came upon a hive of them fifty feet above ground what to say to the bat when he disturbed him in the branches at mid day and how to warn the water in the pools before he down among them none of the people like being disturbed and all are very ready to fly at an intruder then too was taught the strangers hunting call which must be repeated aloud till it is answered whenever one of the people outside his own grounds it means translated give me leave to hunt here because i am hungry and the answer is hunt then for food but not for pleasure all this will show you how much had to learn by heart and he grew very tired of saying the same thing over a hundred times but as said to one day when had been d the book and run off in a temper a man s is a man s and he must learn all the law of the but think how small he is said the black who would have spoiled if he had had his own way how can his little head carry all thy long talk is there anything in the too little to be killed no that is why i teach him these things and that is why i hit him very softly when he forgets softly what dost thou know of softness old iron feet his face is all bruised to day by thy softness better he should be bruised from head to foot by me who love him than that he should come to harm through ignorance answered very earnestly i am now teaching him the master words of the that shall protect him with the birds and the snake people and all that hunt on four feet except his own pack he can now claim protection if he will only remember the words from all in the is not that worth a	39
call me mark my il the last words were shrieked as he was being swung through the air but nodded and rose up till he looked no bigger than a speck of dust and there he hung watching with his eyes the swaying of the tree tops as s escort whirled along they never go far he said with a chuckle they never do what they set out to do always at new things are the log this time if i have any they have down trouble for themselves for is no and can as i know kill more than so he rocked on his wings his feet gathered up under him and waited meantime and were furious with rage and grief climbed as he had never climbed before but the thin branches broke beneath his weight and he slipped down his claws full of bark why thou not warn the man he roared to poor who had set off at a clumsy trot in the hope of the what was the use of half him with blows if thou not warn him haste o haste we we may catch them yet panted at that speed it would not tire a wounded cow teacher of the law a mile of that rolling to and fro would burst thee open sit still and think make a plan this is no time for chasing they may drop him if we follow too close mm t m m ft s hunting i i they may have dropped him already being tired of carrying him who can trust the log put dead on my head give me black bones to eat roll me into the of the wild bees that i may be stung to death and bury me with the for i am the most miserable of bears o why did i not warn thee against the monkey folk instead of breaking thy head now perhaps i may have knocked the day s lesson out of his mind and he will be alone in the without the master words clasped his over his ears and rolled to and fro moaning at least he gave me all the words correctly a little time ago said impatiently thou hast neither memory nor respect what would the think if i the black curled myself up like the and howled what do i care what the thinks he may be dead by now unless and until they drop him from the branches in sport or kill him out of idleness i have no fear for the man he is wise and well taught and above all he has the eyes that make the people afraid but and it is a great evil he is in the power of the log and they because they live in trees have no fear of any of our people licked one fore thoughtfully fool that i am oh fat brown root digging fool that i am said himself with a jerk it is true what the wild elephant says to each his own fear and they the log fear the rock snake he can climb as well as they can the book he the young in the night the whisper of his name makes their wicked tails cold let us go to what will he do for us he is not of our tribe being and with most evil eyes said he is very old and very cunning above all he is always hungry said promise him many he sleeps for a full month after he has once eaten he may be asleep now and even were he awake what if he would rather kill his own who did not know much about was naturally suspicious then in that case thou and i together old hunter might make him see reason here rubbed his faded brown shoulder against the and they went off to look for the rock they found him stretched out on a warm ledge in the afternoon sun admiring his beautiful new coat for he had been in retirement for the last ten days changing his skin and now he was very splendid darting his big blunt head along the ground and twisting the thirty feet of his body into fantastic knots and curves and his lips as he thought of his dinner to come he has not eaten said with a of relief as soon as he saw the beautifully brown and yellow jacket be careful he is always a little blind after he has changed his skin and very quick to strike was not a poison snake in fact he rather despised the poison as but his s hunting strength lay in his and when he had once his huge round anybody there was no more to be said good hunting cried sitting up on his like all of his breed was rather deaf and did not hear the call at first then he curled up ready for any accident his head lowered good hunting for us all he answered what dost thou do here good hunting one of us at least needs food is there any news of game a now or even a young buck i am as empty as a dried well we are hunting said carelessly he knew that you must not hurry he is too big give me permission to come with you said a blow more or less is nothing to thee or but i i have to wait and wait for days in a wood path and climb half a night on the mere chance of a young the branches are not what they were when i was young rotten twigs and dry boughs are they all maybe thy great weight has something to do with the matter said i am a fair length a fair length said with a little pride but for all that it is the	39
fault of this new grown timber i came very near to falling on my last hunt very near indeed and the noise of my slipping for my tail was not tight wrapped round the tree the log and they called me most evil names yellow earth worm said under his whiskers as though he were trying to remember something have they ever called me that said the book something of that kind it was that they shouted to us last moon but we never noticed them they will say anything even that thou hast lost all thy teeth and wilt not face anything bigger than a kid because they are indeed these because thou art afraid of the he horns went on sweetly now a snake especially a wary old like very seldom shows that he is angry but and could see the big muscles on either side of s throat ripple and the log have shifted their grounds he said quietly when i came up into the sun to day i heard them among the tree tops it it is the log that we follow now said but the words stuck in his throat for that was the first time in his memory that one of the people had owned to being interested in the doings of the beyond doubt then it is no small thing that takes two such hunters leaders in their own i am certain on the trail of the log replied courteously as he swelled with curiosity indeed began i am no more than the old and sometimes very foolish teacher of the law to the wolf and here is said the black and his jaws shut with a snap for he did not believe in being humble the trouble is this those nut and of palm leaves have stolen away our man of whom thou hast perhaps heard i heard some news from his make him of a man thing that was entered f s hunting into a wolf pack but i did not believe is full of stories half heard and very badly told but it is true he is such a man as never was said the best and wisest and of man my own pupil who shall make the name of famous through all the and besides i we love him ts ts said weaving his head to and fro i also have known what love is there are tales i could tell that that need a clear night when we are all well fed to praise properly said quickly our man is in the hands of the log now and we know that of all the people they fear alone they fear me alone they have good reason said chattering foolish vain vain foolish and chattering are the but a man thing in their hands is in no good luck they grow tired of the nuts they pick and throw them down they carry a branch half a day meaning to do great things with it and then they snap it in two that man thing is not to be envied they called me also yellow fish was it not worm worm earth worm said as well as other things which i cannot now say for shame we must remind them to speak well of their master we must help their wandering memories now whither went they with the the alone knows towards the sunset i believe said we had thought that thou know v the book i how i take them when they come in my way but i do not hunt the log or or green on a water hole for that matter up up up up look up of the wolf pack looked up to see where the voice came from and there was the sweeping down with the sun shining on the of his wings it was near s bed time but he had ranged all over the looking for the bear and missed him in the thick foliage what is it said i have seen among the log he bade me tell you i watched the log have taken him beyond the river to the monkey city to the cold they may stay there for a night or ten nights or an hour i have told the to watch through the dark time that is my message good hunting all you below full and a deep sleep to you cried i will remember thee in my next kill and put aside the head for thee alone oh best of it is nothing it is nothing the boy held the master word i could have done no less and up again to his he has not forgotten to use his tongue said with a chuckle of pride to think of one so young remembering the master word for the birds too while he was being pulled across trees it was most firmly driven into him said but i am proud of him and now we must go to the cold hunting they all knew where that place was but few of the people ever went there because what they called the cold was an old deserted city lost and buried in the and beasts seldom use a place that men have once used the wild will but the hunting tribes do not besides the lived there as much as they could be said to live anywhere and no self respecting animal would come within eye shot of it except in times of when the half ruined and held a little water it is half a s journey at full speed said and looked very serious i will go as fast as i can he said anxiously we dare not wait for thee follow we must go on the quick foot and i feet or	39
no feet i can keep abreast of all thy four said shortly made one effort to hurry but had to sit down panting and so they left him to come on later while hurried forward at the quick said nothing but strive as might the huge rock held level with him when they came to a hill stream gained because he bounded across while swam his head and two feet of his neck clearing the water but on level ground made up the distance by the broken lock that freed me said when twilight had fallen thou art no slow i am hungry said besides they called me worm and yellow to boot all one let us go on and seemed to pour e s the book himself along the ground finding the shortest road with his steady eyes and keeping to it in the cold the monkey people were not thinking of s friends at all they had brought the boy to the lost city and were very pleased with themselves for the time had never seen an indian city before and though this was almost a heap of ruins it seemed very wonderful and splendid some king had built it long ago on a little hill you could still trace the stone that led up to the ruined gates where the last of wood hung to the worn hinges trees had grown into and out of the walls the were tumbled down and decayed and wild hung out of the windows of the towers on the walls in hanging a great palace crowned the hill and the marble of the and the fountains was split and stained with red and green and the very in the where the king s used to live had been thrust up and apart by and young trees from the palace you could see the rows and rows of houses that made up the city looking like empty filled with blackness the block of stone that had been an idol in the square where four roads met the an at street corners where the public wells once stood and the shattered of temples with wild on sides the called the place their city and pretended to despise the people because they lived in the forest and yet they never knew what the buildings were made for nor how to use them l i wi s r s hunting they would sit in circles on the hall of the king s council chamber and scratch for fl as and pretend to be men or they would run in and out of the houses and collect pieces of plaster and old tricks in a corner and forget where they had hidden them and fight and cry in crowds and then break off to play up and down the of the s garden where they would shake the rose trees and the in sport to see the fruit and flowers fall they all the passages and dark in the palace and the hundreds of little dark rooms but they never remembered what they had seen and w they had not and so drifted about in ones and or crowds telling each other that they were doing as men did they drank at the and made the water all muddy and then they fought over it and then they would all rush together in and shout there is no one in the so wise and good and clever and strong and gentle as the log then all would begin again till they grew tired of the city and went back to the tree tops hoping the people would notice them who had been trained under the law of the did not like or understand this kind of life the dragged him into the cold late in the afternoon and in of going to sleep as would have done after a long journey they joined hands and danced about and sang their foolish songs one of the made a speech and told his companions that s capture marked a new thing in the history of the for was going to show them how to sticks and together as a protection against rain and r the book cold picked up some and began to work them in and out and the tried to imitate but in a very few minutes they lost interest and began to pull their friends tails or jump up and down on all i wish to eat said i am a stranger in this part of the bring me food or give me leave to hunt here twenty or thirty bounded away to bring him nuts and wild but they fell to fighting on the road and it was too much trouble to go back with what was left of the fruit was sore and angry as well as hungry and he through the empty city giving the strangers hunting call from time to time but no one answered him and felt that he had reached a very bad place indeed all that has said about the log is true he thought to himself they have no law no hunting call and no leaders nothing but foolish words and little picking hands so if i am starved or killed here it will be all my own fault but i must try to return to my own will surely beat me but that is better than chasing silly rose leaves with the no sooner had he walked to the city wall than the pulled him back telling him that he did not know how happy he was and him to make him grateful he set his teeth and said nothing but went with the shouting to a terrace above the red that were half full of rain water there was a ruined of white marble in the centre of the terrace built for queens dead a hundred years ago the roof j	39
s hunting had half fallen in and blocked up the passage from the palace by which the queens used to enter but the walls were made of of marble beautiful milk white fret work set with and and and and as the moon came up behind the hill it shone through the open work casting shadows on the ground like black velvet sore sleepy and hungry as he was could not help laughing when the log began twenty at a time to tell him how great and wise and strong and gentle they were and how foolish he was to wish to leave them we are great we are free we are wonderful we are the most wonderful people in all the we all say so and so it must be true they shouted now as you are a new listener and can carry our words back to the people so that they may notice us in future we will tell you all about our most excellent selves made no objection and the gathered by hundreds and hundreds on the terrace to listen to their own singing the praises of the and whenever a speaker stopped for want of breath they would all shout together this is true we all say so nodded and and said yes when they asked him a question and his head spun with the noise the must have bitten all these people he said to himself and now they have the madness certainly this is the madness do they never go to sleep now there is a cloud coming to cover that moon if it were only a big enough cloud i might try to run away in the darkness but i am tired the book that same cloud was being watched by two good friends in the ruined ditch below the city wall for and knowing well how dangerous the monkey people were in large numbers did not wish to run any risks the never fight unless they are a hundred to one and few in the care for those odds i will go to the west wall whispered and come down swiftly with the slope of the ground in my favour they will not throw themselves upon my back in their hundreds but i know it said would that were here but we must do what we can when that cloud covers the moon i shall go to the terrace they hold some sort of council there over the boy good hunting said grimly and glided away to the west wall that happened to be the least ruined of any and the big snake was delayed awhile before he could find a way up the stones the cloud hid the moon and as wondered what would come next he heard s light feet on the terrace the black had up the slope almost without a sound and was striking he knew better than to waste time in biting right and left among the who were seated round in circles fifty and sixty deep there was a howl of fright and rage and then as tripped on the rolling kicking bodies beneath him a monkey shouted there is only one here kill him kill a mass of biting scratching tearing and pulling closed over while five or six laid hold of dragged him up the wall of the summer house and s hunting pushed him through the hole of the broken dome a man trained boy would have been badly bruised for the fall was a good fifteen feet but fell as had taught him to fall and landed on his feet stay there shouted the till we have killed thy friends and later we will play with thee if the poison people leave thee alive we be of one blood ye and i said quickly giving the snake s call he could hear rustling and hissing in the rubbish all round him and gave the call a second time to make sure even down all said half a dozen low voices every ruin in india becomes sooner or later a dwelling place of and the old summer house was alive with stand still little brother for thy feet may do us harm stood as quietly as he could peering through the open work and listening to the furious din of the fight round the black the and and and s deep hoarse cough as he backed and and twisted and plunged under the heaps of his enemies for the first time since he was born was fighting for his life must be at hand would not have come alone thought and then he called aloud to the roll to the roll and plunge get to the water heard and the cry that told him was safe gave him new courage he worked his way desperately inch by inch straight for the halting in silence then from the ruined the book wall nearest the rose up the war shout of the old bear had done his best but he could not come before he shouted i am here i climb i haste the stones slip under my feet wait my coming oh most infamous log he panted up the terrace only to disappear to the head in a wave of but he threw himself on his and spreading out his fore as many as he could hold and then began to hit with a regular bat bat like the strokes of a wheel a crash and a splash told that had fought his way to the where the could not follow the lay gasping for breath his head just out of water while the stood three deep on the red steps dancing up and down with rage ready to spring upon him from all sides if he came out to help it was then that lifted up his dripping chin and in despair gave the snake s call	39
for protection we be of one blood ye and i for he believed that had turned tail at the last minute even half smothered under the on the edge of the terrace could not help as he heard the black asking for help had only just worked his way over the west wall landing with a that a into the ditch he had no intention of losing any advantage of the ground and and himself once or twice to be sure that every foot of his long body was in working order all that while the fight with went on and the s hunting in the round and the bat flying to and fro carried the news of the great battle over the till even the wild elephant and far away scattered bands of the monkey folk woke and came leaping along the to help their comrades in the cold and the noise of the fight roused all the day birds for miles round then came straight quickly and anxious to kill the fighting strength of a is in the driving blow of his head backed by all the strength and weight of his body if you can imagine a lance or a ram or a hammer weighing nearly half a ton driven by a cool quiet mind living in the handle of it you can roughly imagine what was like when he fought a four or five feet long can knock a man down if he him fairly in the chest and was thirty feet long as you know his first stroke was delivered into the heart of the crowd round ba oo was sent home with shut mouth in silence and there was no need of a second the scattered with cries of it is run run generations of had been scared into good behaviour by the stories their elders told them of the night thief who could slip along the branches as quietly as moss grows and steal away the strongest monkey that ever lived of old who could make himself look so like a dead branch or a rotten stump that the wisest were deceived till the branch caught them was everything that the feared in the for none of them knew the limits of his power none of them could look him in the face and none had ever come alive out of his and the book so they ran with terror to the walls and the roofs of the houses and drew a deep breath of relief his fur was much thicker than s but he had suffered sorely in the fight then opened his mouth for the first time and spoke one long hissing word and the far away hurrying to the defence of the cold stayed where they were till the loaded branches bent and under them the on the walls and the empty houses stopped their cries and in the stillness that fell upon the city heard shaking his wet sides as he came up from the then the broke out again the leaped higher up the walls they clung round the necks of the big stone and shrieked as they along the while dancing in the summer house put his eye to the screen work and owl fashion between his front teeth to show his derision and contempt get the man out of that trap i can do no more gasped let us take the man and go they may attack again they will not move till i order them stay you and the city was silent once more i could not come before brother but i think i heard thee call this was to i i may have cried out in the battle answered art thou hurt i am not sure that they did not pull me into a hundred little said gravely shaking one leg after the other i am sore we owe thee i think our lives and i no matter where is the s hunting here in a trap i cannot climb out cried the curve of the broken dome was above his head take him away he dances like the he will crush our young said the inside said with a chuckle he has friends everywhere this stand back and hide you o poison people i break down the wall looked carefully till he found a crack in the marble showing a weak spot made two or three light with his head to get the distance and then lifting up six feet of his body clear of the ground sent home half a dozen full power blows nose first the screen work broke and fell away in a cloud of dust and rubbish and leaped through the opening and flung himself between and an arm round each big neck art thou hurt said him softly i am sore hungry and not a little bruised but oh they have handled ye my brothers ye others also said his lips and looking at the monkey dead on the terrace and round the it is nothing it is nothing if thou art safe oh my pride of all little of that we shall judge later said in a dry voice that did not at all like but here is to whom we owe the battle and thou thy life thank him according to our customs o the book turned and saw the great s head swaying a foot above his own so this is the said very soft is his skin and he is not unlike the log have a care that i do not mistake thee for a monkey some twilight when i have newly changed my coat we be one blood thou and i answered i take my life from thee to night my kill shall be thy kill if ever thou art hungry o all thanks little brother sa id though his eyes and what may	39
so bold a hunter kill i ask that i may follow when next he goes abroad i kill nothing i am too little but i drive towards such as can use them when thou art empty come to me and see if i speak the truth i have some skill in these he held out his hands and if ever thou art in a trap i may pay the debt which i owe to thee to and to here good hunting to ye all my masters well said growled for had re turned thanks very prettily the dropped his head lightly for a minute on s shoulder a brave heart and a courteous tongue said he they shall carry thee far through the but now go hence quickly with thy friends go and sleep for the moon sets and what follows it is not well that thou see the moon was sinking behind the hills and the lines of trembling huddled together on the walls and looked like ragged of things went down to the for a drink s hunting i and began to put his fur in order as glided out into the centre of the terrace and brought his jaws together with a ringing snap that drew all the eyes upon him the moon sets he said is there yet light enough to see from the walls came a moan like the wind in the tree tops we see o good begins now the dance the dance of the hunger of sit still and watch he turned twice or thrice in a big circle weaving his head from right to left then he began making and figures of eight with his body and soft that melted into squares and five sided figures and never resting never hurrying and never stopping his low humming song it grew darker and darker till at last the dragging shifting disappeared but they could hear the rustle of the scales and stood still as stone growling in their throats their neck hair and watched and wondered said the voice of at last can ye stir foot or hand without my order speak without thy order we cannot stir foot or hand o good come all one pace nearer to me the lines of the swayed forward helplessly and and took one stiff step forward with them nearer and they all moved again laid his hands on and to get them away and the two great beasts started as though they had been from a dream the book keep thy hand on my shoulder whispered keep it there or i must go back must go back to it is only old making circles on the dust said let us go and the three slipped off through a gap in the walls to the i said when he stood under the still trees again never more will i make an ally of and he shook himself all over he knows more than we said trembling in a little time had i stayed i should have walked down his throat many will walk by that road before the moon rises again said he will have good hunting after his own fashion but what was the meaning of it all said who did not know anything of a s powers of fascination i saw no more than a big snake making foolish circles till the dark came and his nose was all sore ho ho said angrily his nose was sore on account as my ears and sides and and s neck and shoulders are bitten on account neither nor will be able to hunt with pleasure for many days it is nothing said we have the man again true but he has cost us heavily in time which might have been spent in good hunting in wounds in hair i am half plucked along my back and last of all in honour for remember i who am the black was forced to call upon for protection and and i were both made s hunting stupid as little birds by the hunger dance all this man came of thy playing with the true it is true said sorrowfully i am an evil man and my stomach is sad in me what says the law of the did not wish to bring into any more trouble but he could not with the law so he sorrow never stays punishment but remember he is very little i will remember but he has done mischief and blows must be dealt now hast thou anything to say nothing i did wrong and thou are wounded it is just gave him half a dozen love from a s point of view they would hardly have one of his own but for a seven boy they amounted to as severe a beating as you could wish to avoid when it was all over and picked himself up without a word now said jump on my back little brother and we will go home one of the beauties of law is that settles all scores there is no afterwards laid his head down on s back and slept so deeply that he never when he was put down in the home cave v road song of the log road song of the log here we go in a flung half way up to the jealous moon don t you envy our bands don t you wish you had extra hands wouldn t you like if your tails were so curved in the shape of a s bow now you re angry but never mind brother thy tail down behind here we sit in a row thinking of beautiful things we know dreaming of deeds that we mean to do all complete in a minute or two something noble and wise and good done by merely wishing we could we	39
ve forgotten but never mind brother thy tail hangs down behind i all the talk we ever have heard uttered by bat or beast or bird hide or fin or scale or feather it quickly and all together excellent wonderful once again now we are talking just like men let s pretend we are never mind brother y thy tail hangs behind i this is the way of the monkey kind then join our leaping lines that through the pines that by where light and high the wild by the rubbish in our wake and the noble noise we make be sure be sure w re going to do some splendid things tiger tiger what of the b the long and com what of the ye went to brother be in the where is the power that made your pride brother it from my and side where is the that ye hurry by brother i go my to die when left the cave after the fight with the pack at the council rock he went down to the lands where the villagers lived but he would not stop there because it was too near to the and he knew that he had made at least one bad enemy at the council so he hurried on keeping to the rough road that ran down the valley and followed it at a steady for nearly twenty miles till he came to a country that he did not know the valley opened out into a great plain dotted over the rocks and cut up with at one end stood a little village and at the book the other the thick came down in a sweep to the grounds and stopped there as though it had been cut off with a all over the plain cattle and were and when the little boys in chaise of the herds saw they shouted and ran away and the yellow dogs that hang about every indian village walked on for he was feeling hungry and when he came to the village gate he saw the big that was drawn up before the gate at twilight pushed to one side he said for he had come across more than one such in his night after things to eat so men are afraid of the people of tiger tiger the here also he sat down by the gate and when a man came out he stood up opened his mouth and pointed down it to show that he wanted food the man stared and ran back up the one street of the village shouting for the priest who was a big fat man dressed in white with a red and yellow mark on his forehead the priest came to the gate and with him at least a hundred people who stared and talked and shouted and pointed at they have no manners these men folk said to himself only the gray would behave as they do so he threw back his long hair and frowned at the crowd what is there to be afraid of said the priest look at the marks on his arms and legs they are the of wolves he is but a wolf child run away from the of course in playing together the had often harder than they intended and there were white all over his arms and legs but he would have been the last person in the world to call these for he knew what real biting meant i said two or three women together to be bitten by wolves poor child he is a handsome boy he has eyes like red fire by my honour he is not unlike thy boy that was taken by the tiger let me look said a woman with heavy copper rings on her wrists and ankles and she peered at under the palm of her hand indeed he is not he is thinner but he has the very look of my boy the priest was a clever man and he knew that the book was wife to the richest in the place so he looked up at the sky for a minute and said solemnly what the has taken the has restored take the boy into thy house my sister and forget not to honour the priest who sees so far into the lives of men by the bull that bought me said to himself but all this talking is like another looking over by the pack well if i am a man a man i must be the crowd parted as the woman beckoned to her hut where there was a red a great grain chest with funny raised patterns on it half a dozen copper an image of a god in a little and on the wall a real looking glass such as they sell at the country for eight cents she gave him a long drink of milk and some bread and then she laid her hand on his head and looked into his eyes for she thought perhaps that he might be her real son come back from the where the tiger had taken him so she said o did not show that he knew the name dost thou not remember the day when i gave thee thy new shoes she touched his foot and it was almost as hard as horn no she said sorrowfully those feet have never worn shoes but thou art very like my and thou shalt be my son was uneasy because he had never been under a roof before but as he looked at the he saw that he could tear it out any time if he wanted to get away and that the window had no i tiger tiger what is the good of a man he said to himself at last if he does not understand man s talk now i am as silly and dumb as a	39
man would be with us in the i must speak their talk he had not learned while he was with the wolves to imitate the challenge of in the and the of the little wild pig for fun so as soon as pronounced a word would imitate it almost perfectly and before dark he had learned the name of many things in the hut there was a difficulty at because would not sleep under anything that looked so like a trap as that hut and when they shut the door he went through the window give him his will said s husband remember he can never till now have slept on a bed if he is indeed sent in the place of our son he will not run away so stretched himself in some long clean grass at the edge of the field but before he had closed his eyes a soft gray nose him under the chin said gray brother he was the eldest of mother this is a poor reward for following thee twenty miles thou of and cattle altogether like a man already wake little brother i bring news are all well in the said him all except the wolves that were burned with the red flower now listen has gone away to hunt far off till his coat grows again tiger tiger for he is badly when he returns he that he will lay thy bones in the there are two words to that i also have made a little promise but news is always good i am tired to night very tired with new things gray brother but bring me the news always thou wilt not forget that thou art a wolf men will not make thee forget said gray brother anxiously never i will always remember that i love thee and all in our cave but also i will always remember that i have been cast out of the pack and that thou may st be cast out of another pack men are only men little brother and their talk is like the talk of in a pond when i come down here again i will wait for thee in the at the edge of the ground for three months after that night hardly ever left the village gate he was so busy learning the ways and customs of men first he had to wear a cloth round him which annoyed him horribly and then he had to learn about money which he did not in the least understand and about of which he did not see the use then the little children in the village made him very angry luckily the law of the had taught him to keep his temper for in the life and food depend on keeping your temper but when they made fun of him because he would not play games or fly or because he some word only the knowledge that it was to kill little naked kept him from picking them up and breaking them in two he did not know his own the book strength in the least in the he knew he was weak compared with tha beasts but in the village people said that he was as strong as a bull he certainly had no notion of what fear was for when the village priest told him that the god in the temple would be angry with him if he ate the priest s he picked up the image brought it over to the priest s house and asked the priest to make the god angry and he would be happy to fight him it was a horrible scandal but the priest hushed it up and s husband paid much good silver to comfort the god and had not the faintest idea of the difference that caste makes between man and man when the s donkey slipped in the clay pit hauled it out by the tail and helped to the pots for their journey to the market at that was very shocking too for the is a low caste man and his donkey is worse when the priest him threatened to put him on the donkey too and the priest told s husband that had better be set to work as soon as possible and the village told that he would have to go out with the next day and herd them while they no one was more pleased than and that night because he had been appointed a servant of the village as it were he went off to a circle that met every evening on a platform under a great fig tree it was the village club and the head man and the and the who knew all the gossip of the village and old the village hunter who had a tower met and smoked the sat and talked in tiger tiger the upper branches and there was a hole under the platform where a lived and he had his little of milk every night because he was sacred and the old men sat around the tree and talked and pulled at the big the water pipes till far into the night they told wonderful tales of gods and men and ghosts and told even more wonderful ones of the ways of beasts in the till the eyes of the children sitting outside the circle out of their heads most of the tales were about animals for the was always at their door the deer and the wild pig up their crops and now and again the tiger carried off a man at twilight within sight of the village gates who naturally knew something about what they were talking of had to cover his face not to show that he was laughing while the tower across his knees climbed on from one wonderful story to another and s shoulders shook was explaining how the tiger	39
lame up in the by the would have heard him in those long still mornings at last a day came when he did not see gray brother at the signal place and he laughed and headed the for the by the tree which was all covered with golden red flowers there sat gray brother every on his back lifted he has hidden for a month to throw thee off thy guard he crossed the last night with hot foot on thy trail said the wolf panting frowned i am not afraid of but is very cunning have no fear said gray brother his lips a little i met in the dawn now he is telling all his wisdom to the but he told me everything before i broke his back s plan is to wait for thee at the village gate this evening for thee and for no one else he is lying up now in the big dry of the has he eaten to day or does he hunt empty said for the answer meant life and death to him tiger tiger he killed at dawn a pig and he has drunk too remember could never fast even for the sake of revenge oh fool fool what a s it is eaten and drunk too and he thinks that i shall wait till he has slept now where does he lie up if there were but ten of us we might pull him down as he lies these will not charge unless they wind him and i cannot speak their language can we get behind his track so that they may smell it he swam far down the to cut that off said gray brother told him that i know he would never have thought of it alone stood with his finger in his mouth thinking the big of the that opens out on the plain not half a mile from here i can take the herd round through the to the head of the and then sweep down but he would out at the foot we must block that end gray brother thou cut the herd in two for me not i perhaps but i have brought a wise gray brother trotted off and dropped into a hole then there lifted up a huge gray head that knew well and the hot air was filled with the most desolate cry of all the the hunting howl of a wolf at mid day said clapping his hands i might have known that thou not forget me we have a big work in hand cut the herd in two keep the cows and together and the and the plough by themselves so the book the two wolves ran ladies chain fashion in and out of the herd which and threw up its head and separated into two in one the cow stood with their in the centre and glared and ready if a wolf would still to charge down and the life out of him in the other the and the young and stamped but though they looked more imposing they were much less dangerous for they had no to protect no six men could have divided the herd so neatly what orders panted they are trying to join again slipped on to s back drive the away to the left gray brother when we are gone hold the cows together and drive them into the foot of the how far said gray brother panting and snapping till the sides are higher than can jump shouted keep them there till we come down the swept off as and gray brother stopped in front of the cows they charged down on him and he ran just before them to the foot of the as drove the far to the left well done another charge and they are fairly started careful now careful a snap too much and the will charge this is work than driving black buck thou think these creatures could move so swiftly called j have have hunted these too in my time r tiger tiger l gasped in the dust shall i turn them into the ay turn swiftly turn them is mad with rage oh if i could only tell him what i need of him to day the were turned to the right this time and into the standing thicket the other herd children watching with the cattle half a mile away hurried to the village as fast as their legs could carry them crying that the had gone mad and run away but s plan was simple enough all he wanted to do was to make a big circle and get at the head of the and then take the down it and catch between the and the cows for he knew that after a meal and a full drink would not be in any condition to fight or to up the sides of the he was soothing the now by voice and had dropped far to the rear only once or twice to hurry the rear guard it was a long long circle for they did not wish to get too near the and give warning at last rounded up the bewildered herd at the head of the on a grassy patch that down to the itself from that height you could see across the tops of the trees down to the plain below but what looked at was the sides of the and he saw with a great deal of satisfaction that they ran nearly straight up and down while the vines and that hung over them would give no to a tiger who wanted to get out let them breathe he said holding up g the book his hand they have not him yet let them breathe i must tell who comes we have him in the trap he put his hands to his	39
mouth and shouted down the it was almost like shouting down a and the echoes jumped from rock to rock after a long time there came back the sleepy of a full fed tiger just who calls said and a splendid fluttered up out of the i cattle thief it is time to come to the council rock down hurry them down down down the herd paused for an instant at the edge of the slope but gave tongue in the full hunting yell and they pitched over one after the other just as shoot the sand and stones up round them once started there was no chance of stopping and before they were fairly in the bed of the and ha ha said on his back now thou and the torrent of black horns foaming and staring eyes whirled down the just as go down in flood time the weaker being shouldered out to the sides of the where they tore through the they knew what the business was before them the terrible charge of the herd against which no tiger can hope to stand heard the thunder of their hoofs picked himself up and down the looking from side to side for some way of escape but the walls of the tiger tiger were straight and he had to hold on heavy with his dinner and his drink willing to do anything rather than fight the herd through the pool he had just left till the narrow cut rang heard an answering from the foot of the saw turn the tiger knew if the worst came to the worst it was better to meet the than the cows with their and then tripped stumbled and went on again over something soft and with the at his heels full into the other herd while the weaker were lifted clean off their feet by the shock of the meeting that charge carried both herds out into the plain and stamping and watched his time and slipped off s neck laying about him right and left with his stick quick break them up scatter them or they will be fighting one another drive them away hai hai hai hat my children softly now softly it is all over and gray brother ran to and fro the legs and though the herd wheeled once to charge up the again managed to turn and the others followed him to the needed no more he was dead and the were coming for him already brothers that was a dog s death said feeling for the knife he always carried in a round his neck now that he lived with men but he would never have shown fight his hide will look well on the council rock we must get to work the book a boy trained among men would never have dreamed of a ten foot tiger alone but knew better than any one else how an animal s skin is fitted on and how it can be taken but it was hard work and and tore and for an hour while the wolves out their tongues or came forward and as he ordered them presently a hand fell on his shoulder and looking up he saw with the tower the children had told the village about the and went out angrily only too anxious to correct for not taking better care of the herd the wolves dropped out of sight as soon as they saw the man coming what is this folly said angrily to think that thou skin a tiger where did the kill him it is the lame tiger too and there is a hundred on his head well well we will overlook thy letting the herd run off and perhaps i will give thee one of the of the reward when i have taken the skin to he in his waist cloth for flint and steel and stooped down to s whiskers most native hunters always a tiger s whiskers to prevent his ghost from haunting them hum said half to himself as he back the skin of a so thou wilt take the hide to for the reward and perhaps give me one now it is in my mind that i need the skin for my own use old man take away that fire what talk is this to the chief hunter of the tiger tiger village thy luck and the stupidity of thy have helped thee to this kill the tiger has just fed or he would have gone twenty miles by this time thou not even skin him properly little beggar and i must be told not to his whiskers i not give thee one of the reward but only a very big beating leave the by the bull that bought me said who was trying to get at the shoulder must i stay to an old all noon here this man me who was still stooping over s head found himself on the grass with a gray wolf standing over him while went on as though he were alone in all india ye es he said between his teeth thou art altogether right thou wilt never me one of the reward there is an old war between this lame tiger and myself a very old war and i have won to do justice if he had been ten years younger he would have taken his chance with had he met the wolf in the woods but a wolf who obeyed the orders of this boy who had private wars with man eating was not a common animal it was magic of the worst kind thought and he wondered whether the round his neck would protect him he lay as still as still expecting every minute to see turn into a tiger too great king he said at last in a whisper tiger tiger yes said without turning his	39
head a little i am an old man i did not know that thou anything more than a may i rise up and go away or will thy servant tear me to pieces go and peace go with thee only another time do not with my game let him go away to the village as fast as he could looking back over his shoulder in case should change into something terrible when he got to the village he told a tale of magic and enchantment and that made the priest look very grave went on with his work but it was nearly twilight before he and the s drawn the great gay skin clear of the body now we must hide this and take the home help me to herd them the herd rounded up in the misty twilight and when they got near the village saw lights and heard the and bells in the temple blowing and half the village seemed to be waiting for him by the gate that is because i have killed he said to himself but a shower of stones whistled about his ears and the villagers shouted wolf s go away get hence quickly or the priest will turn thee into a wolf again shoot shoot the old tower went off with a bang and a young in pain the book more shouted the villagers he can turn bullets that was thy now what is this said bewildered as the stones flew thicker they are not unlike the pack these brothers of thine said sitting down it is in my head that if bullets mean anything they would cast thee out wolf wolf s go away shouted the priest waving a of the sacred plant again last time it was because i was a man this time it is because i am a wolf let us go a woman it was ran across to the herd and cried oh my son my son they say thou art a who can turn himself into a beast at will i do not believe but go or they will kill thee says thou art a but i know thou hast s death come back shouted the crowd come back or we will stone thee laughed a little short ugly laugh for a stone had hit him in the mouth run back this is one of the foolish tales they tell under the big tree at dusk i have at least paid for thy son s life farewell and run quickly for i shall send the herd in more swiftly than their i am no farewell now once more he cried bring the herd in the were anxious enough to get to the village they hardly needed s yell but charged through the gate like a scattering the crowd right and left tiger tiger keep count shouted scornfully it may be that i have stolen one of them keep count for i will do your no more fare you well children of men and thank that i do not come in with my wolves and hunt you up and down your street he turned on his heel and walked away with the across with lone wolf and as he looked up at the stars he felt happy no more sleeping in traps for me let us get s skin and go away no we will not hurt the village for was kind to me when the moon rose over the plain making it look all the villagers saw with two wolves at his heels and a bundle on his head trotting across at the steady wolf s trot that i the book eats up the long miles like fire then they the temple bells and blew the louder than ever and cried and embroidered the story of his adventures in the till he ended by saying that stood up on his hind legs and talked like a man the moon was just going down when and the two wolves came to the hill of the council rock and they stopped at mother cave they have cast me out from the man pack mother shouted but i come with the hide of to keep my mother wolf walked stiffly from the cave with the behind her and her eyes glowed as she saw the skin i told him on that day when he crammed his head and shoulders into this cave hunting for thy life little i told him that the hunter would be the hunted it is well done little brother it is well done said a deep voice in the thicket we were lonely in the without thee and came running to s bare feet they up the council rock together and spread the skin out on the flat stone where used to sit and it down with four of and lay down upon it and called the old call to the council look look well o wolves exactly as he had called when was first brought there ever since had been the pack had been without a leader hunting and fighting at their own pleasure but they answered the call from habit and some of them were lame from the traps tiger tiger they had fallen into and some from and some were from eating bad food the book and many were missing but they came to the council rock all that were left of them and saw s striped hide on the rock and the huge claws dangling at the end of the empty dangling feet look well o wolves have i kept my word said and the wolves yes and one tattered wolf howled lead us again o lead us again o man for we be sick of this and we would be the free people once more nay that may not be when ye are full fed the madness may come upon you again not for nothing are ye	39
called the free people ye fought for freedom and it is yours eat it o wolves man pack and wolf pack have cast me out said now i will hunt alone in the and we will hunt with thee said the four so went away and hunted with the four in the from that day on but he was not always alone because years afterward he became a man and married but that is a story for grown s song s song that he sang at the council rock when he danced on s hide the song of i am singing let the listen to the things i have done said he would kill would kill at the gates in the twilight he would kill the he ate and he drank drink deep for when wilt thou drink again sleep and dream of the kill i am alone on the grounds gray brother come to me come to me lone wolf for there is big game bring up the great bull the blue with the angry eyes drive them to and fro as i order thou still wake o wake here come i and the are behind the king of the stamped with his foot waters of the whither went he is not to dig holes nor the that he should fly he is not the bat to hang in the branches little that together tell me where he ran ow he is there he is there under the feet of lies the lame one up up and kill here is meat break the necks of the he is asleep we will not wake him for his strength is very great the have come down to see it the black have come up to know it there is a great assembly in his honour t i have no cloth to wrap me the will see that i am naked i am ashamed to meet all these people the book lend me thy coat lend me thy gay striped coat that i may go to the council rock by the bull that bought me i made a promise a little promise only thy coat is lacking before i keep my word with the knife with the knife that men use with the knife of the hunter i will stoop down for my gift waters of the gives me his coat for the love that he bears me pull gray brother pull heavy is the hide of the man pack are angry they throw stones and talk child s talk my mouth is bleeding let me run away through the night through the hot night run swiftly with me my brothers we will leave the lights of the village and go to the low moon waters of the the man pack have cast me out i did them no harm but they were afraid of me why wolf pack ye have cast me out too the is shut to me and the village gates are shut why as flies between the beasts and birds so fly i between the village and the why i dance on the hide of but my heart is very heavy my mouth is cut and wounded with the stones from the village but my heart is very light because i have come back to the why these two things fight together in me as the fight in the spring the water comes out of my eyes yet i laugh while it falls why i am two but the hide of is under my feet all the knows that i have killed look look well o wolves my heart is heavy with the things that i do not understand the white seal with pale watery blue eyes as tiny must be but there was something about his coat that made his mother look at him very closely sea catch she said at last our baby s going to be white empty shells and dry sea catch there never has been such a thing in the world as a white seal i can t help that said there s going to be now and she sang the low seal song that all the mother sing to their babies you mustn t swim till you re six weeks old or your head will be sunk by your heels and summer and are bad for baby are bad for baby dear rat as bad as bad can be but splash and grow strong and you can t be wrong child of the open sea of course the little fellow did not understand the words at first he and scrambled about by his mother s side and learned to out of the way when his father was fighting with another seal and the two rolled and roared up and down the slippery rocks used to go to sea to get things to eat and the baby was only fed once in two days but then he ate all he could and upon it the first thing he did was to crawl inland and there he met of thousands of babies of his own age and they played together like went to sleep on the clean sand and played again the old people on the took no notice of them and the kept to their own grounds and the j j j i j j the book babies had a beautiful when came back from her deep sea fishing she would go straight to their play ground and call as a sheep calls for a lamb and wait until she heard then she would take the of straight lines in his direction striking out with her fore and knocking the head over heels right and left there were always a few hundred mothers z i f hunting for their children through the play grounds and the babies were kept lively but as told so	39
long as you don t he in muddy water and get or rub the hard sand into a cut or scratch and so long as you never go swimming when there is a heavy sea nothing will hurt you here little can no more swim than little children but they are unhappy till they learn the first the white seal loi time that went down to the sea a wave carried him out beyond his depth and his big head sank and his little hind flew up exactly as his mother had told him in the song and if the next wave had not thrown him back again he would have drowned after that he learned lie in a and let the wash of the just cover him and lift him up while he but he always kept his eye open for big waves that might hurt he was two weeks learning to use his and all that while he in and out of the water and and and crawled up the beach and took cat on the sand and went back again until at last he found that he truly belonged to the water then you can imagine the times that he had with his companions under the or coming in on top of a and landing with a and a as the big wave went whirling far up the beach or standing up on his tail and scratching his head as the old people did or playing i m the king of the castle on slippery rocks that just stuck out of the wash now and then he would see a thin fin like a big s fin drifting along close to shore and he knew that that was the whale the who eats young when he can get them and would head for the beach like an arrow the fin would off slowly as if it were looking for nothing at all late in october the began to leave st paul s for the deep sea by families and tribes and there was no more fighting over the and the played anywhere they liked next year said to you will be a i the book but this year you must learn how to catch fish they set out together across the pacific and showed how to sleep on his back with his tucked down by his side and his little nose just out of the water no cradle is so comfortable as the long rocking swell of the pacific when felt his skin all over told him he was learning the feel of the water and that feelings meant bad weather coming and he must swim hard and get away in a little time she said you ll know where to swim to but just now we ll follow sea pig for he is very wise a school of were and tearing through the water and little followed them as fast as he could how do you know where to go to he panted the leader of the school rolled his white eye and under my tail he said that means there s a gale behind me come along when you re south of the water he meant the and your tail that means there s a gale in front of you and you must head north come along the water feels bad here this was one of very many things that learned and he was always learning taught him to follow the and the along the under sea banks and the out of his hole among the weeds how to skirt the lying a hundred below water and dart like a rifle bullet in at one port hole and out at another as the fishes ran how to dance on the top of the waves when the lightning was racing all over the sky the white seal and wave his politely to the and the man i as they went down the wind how to jump three or four feet clear of the water hke a close to the side and tail curved to leave the flying fish alone because they are all bony to take the shoulder piece put of a at full speed ten deep and never to stop and look at a boat or a ship but particularly a row boat at the end of six months what did not know about deep sea fishing was not worth the knowing and all that time he never set on dry ground one day however as he was lying half asleep in the warm water somewhere off the island of he felt faint and lazy all over just as human people do when the spring is in their legs and he remembered the book the good firm of seven thousand miles away the games his companions played the smell of the sea weed the seal roar and the fighting that very minute he turned north swimming steadily and as he went on he met scores of his mates all bound for the same place and they said greeting this year we are all and we can dance the fire dance in the off and play on the new grass but where did you get that coat s fur was almost pure white now and though he felt very proud of it he only said swim quickly my bones are aching for the land and so they all came to the where they had been born and heard the old their fathers fighting in the rolling mist that night danced the fire dance with the the sea is full of fire on summer nights all the way down from to and each seal leaves a wake like burning oil behind him and a flaming flash when he and the waves break in great streaks and then they went inland to the grounds and rolled up and down in the new wild wheat and told	39
stories of what they had done while they had been at sea they talked about the pacific as boys would talk about a wood that they had been in and if any one had understood them he could have gone away and made such a of that ocean as never was the three and four down from s hill crying out of the way the sea is deep and you don t know all that s in it yet the white seal wait till you ve rounded the horn hi you where did you get that white coat i didn t get it said it grew and just as he was going to roll the speaker over a couple of black haired men with t red faces came from behind a sand and who had never seen a man before and lowered his head the just off a few yards and sat staring the men were no less than the chief of the on the island and his son they came from the little village not a half a mile from the sea and they were deciding what they would drive up to the killing pens for the were driven just like sheep to be turned into later on ho said look there s a white seal turned nearly white under his oil and smoke for he was an and are not clean people then he began to a prayer don t touch him there has never been a white seal since since i was born perhaps it is old s ghost he was lost last year in the big gale i m not going near him said he s unlucky do you really think he is old come back i owe him for some eggs don t look at him said head off that drove of four years the men ought to skin two hundred to day but it s the beginning of the season and they are new to the work a hundred will do quick i the book rattled a pair of seal s shoulder bones in front of a herd of and they stopped dead puffing and blowing then he stepped near and the began to move and headed them inland and they never tried to get back to their companions hundreds and hundreds of thousands of watched them being driven but they went on playing just the same was the only one who asked questions and none of his companions could tell him anything except that the men always drove in that way for six weeks or two months of every year i am going to follow he said and his eyes nearly out of his head as he along in the wake of the herd the white seal is coming after us cried that s the first time a seal has ever come to the killing grounds alone don t look behind you said it is s ghost i must speak to the priest about this the distance to the killing ground was only half a mile but it took an hour to cover because if the went too fast knew that they would get heated and then their fur would come off in patches when they were so they went on very slowly past sea lion s neck past house till they came to the salt house just beyond the sight of the on the beach followed panting and wondering he thought that he was at the world s end but the roar of the seal behind him sounded as loud as the roar of a train in a then sat down on the moss and the white seal pulled out a heavy watch and let the drove cool off for thirty minutes and could hear the fog dew dripping off the brim of his cap then ten or twelve men each with an iron bound club three or four feet long came up and pointed out one or two of the drove that were bitten by their companions or too hot and the men kicked those aside with their heavy boots made of the skin of a s throat and then said let go and then the men the on the head as fast as they could ten minutes later little did not recognise his friends any more for their skins were off from the nose to the whipped off and thrown down on the ground in a pile that was enough for he turned and galloped a seal can gallop very swiftly for a short time back to the sea his little new moustache with horror at sea lion s neck where the great sea lions sit on the edge of the surf he flung himself overhead into the cool water and rocked there gasping miserably what s here said a sea lion for as a rule the sea lions keep themselves to themselves i m very said they re killing all the on all the the sea lion turned his head nonsense he said your friends are making as much noise as ever you must have seen old off a drove he s done that for thirty years it s horrible said water as a wave went over him and himself with a screw stroke of his that brought him all io the book standing within three inches of a jagged edge of rock well done for a said the sea lion who could appreciate good swimming i suppose it is rather awful from your way of looking at it but if you will come here year after year of course the men get to know of it and unless you can find an island where no men ever come you will always be driven isn t there any such island began i ve followed the the for twenty years and i can t say i ve found it yet but look here you seem to	39
have a fondness for talking to your suppose you go to and talk to sea he may know something don t off like that it s a six mile swim the white seal and if i were you i should haul out and take a nap first little one thought that that was good advice so he swam round to his own beach hauled out and slept for half an hour all over as will then he headed straight for a little low sheet of rocky island almost due north east from all of rock and nests where the by themselves he landed close to old sea the big ugly fat long of the north pacific who has no manners except when he is asleep as he was then with his hind half in and half out of the surf wake up for the were making a great noise ho what s that said sea and he struck the next a blow with his and him up and the next struck the next and so on till they were all awake and staring in every direction but the right one hi it s me said in the surf and looking like a little white well may i be said sea and they all looked at as you can fancy a club full of drowsy old gentlemen would look at a little boy did not care to hear any more about just then he had seen enough of it so he called out isn t there any place for to go where men don t ever come go and find out said sea shutting his eyes run away we re busy here made his jump in the air and i lo the book shouted as loud as he could he knew that sea never caught a fish in his life but always rooted for and though he pretended to be a very terrible person naturally the and the and the the and the and the who are always looking for a chance to be rude took up the cry and so told me for nearly five minutes you could not have heard a gun fired on all the population was yelling and screaming old man while sea rolled from side to side and now will you tell said all out of breath go and ask sea cow said sea if he is living still he ll be able to tell you how shall i know sea cow when i meet him said off he s the only thing in the sea than sea screamed a under sea s nose and with worse manners i swam back to leaving the to scream there he found that no one with him in his little attempt to discover a quiet place for the they told him that men had always driven the it was part of the day s work and that if he did not like to see ugly things he should not have gone to the killing grounds but none of the other had seen the killing and that made the difference between him and his friends besides was a white seal what you must do said old sea catch after he the white seal in had heard his son s adventures is to grow up and be a big seal like your father and have a nursery on the beach and then they will leave you alone in another five years you ought to be able to fight for yourself even gentle his mother said you will never be able to stop the killing go and play in the sea and went off and danced the fire dance with a very heavy little heart that autumn he left the beach as soon as he could and set off alone because of a notion in his bullet head he was going to find sea cow if there was such a person in the sea and he was going to find a quiet island with good firm for to live on where men could not get at them so he and by himself from the north to the south pacific swimming as much as three hundred miles in a day and a night he met with more adventures than can be told and narrowly escaped being caught by the and the spotted and the and he met all the that loaf up and down the seas and the heavy polite fish and the scarlet spotted that are in one place for hundreds of years and grow very proud of it but he never met sea cow and he never found an island that he could fancy if the beach was good and hard with a slope behind it for to play on there was always the smoke of a on the horizon boiling down and knew what that meant or else he could see that had once visited the island and been killed off and knew that where men had come once they would come again he picked up with an old the book who told him that island was the very place for peace and quiet and when went down there he was all but smashed to pieces against some wicked black cliffs in a heavy storm with lightning and thunder yet as he pulled out against the gale he could see even there had once been a seal nursery and it was so in all the other islands that he visited gave a long list of them for he said that spent five seasons exploring with a four months rest each year at when the used to make fun of him and his imaginary islands he went to the a horrid dry place on the where he was nearly baked to death he went to the islands the island little island cough s island s island the and even to a	39
cows herd never went more than forty or fifty miles a day and stopped to feed at night and kept close to the shore all the time while swam round them and over them and under them but he could not hurry them up one mile as they went further north they held a bowing council every few hours and nearly bit off his moustache with impatience till he saw that they were following up a warm current of water and then he respected them more one night they sank through the shiny water sank like stones and for the first time since he had known them began to swim quickly followed and the pace astonished him for he never dreamed that sea cow was anything of a they headed for a cliff by the shore a cliff that ran down into deep water and plunged into a dark hole at the foot of it twenty under the sea it was a long long swim and badly wanted fresh air before he was out of the dark they led him through my wig he said when he rose gasping and puffing into open water at the farther end it was a long but it was worth it the sea cows had separated and were lazily along the edges of the finest that had ever seen there were long stretches of smooth worn rock running for miles exactly fitted to make seal and there were of hard sand sloping inland behind them and there were for to dance in and long grass to the white seal roll in and sand to climb up and down and best of all knew by the feel of the water which never a sea catch that no men had ever come there the first thing he did was to assure himself that the fishing was good and then he swam along the and counted up the delightful low sandy islands half hidden in the beautiful rolling fog away to the northward out to sea ran a line of bars and and rocks that would never let a ship come within six miles of the beach and between the islands and the was a stretch of deep water that ran up to the perpendicular cliffs and somewhere below the cliffs was the mouth of the it s over again but ten times better said sea cow must be wiser than i thought men can t come down the cliffs even if there were any men and the to would knock a ship to if any place in the sea is safe this is it he began to think of the seal he had left behind him but though he was in a hurry to go back to he thoroughly the new country so that he would be able to er all questions then he and made sure of the mouth of the and through to the southward no one but a sea cow or a seal would have dreamed of there being such a place and when he looked back at the cliffs even could hardly believe that he had been there he was ten days going home though he was not swimming slowly and when he hauled out just above sea lion s neck the first person he met was ii the book the seal who had been waiting for him and she saw by the look in his eyes that he had found his island at last but the and sea catch his father and all the other laughed at him when he told them what he had discovered and a young seal about his own age said this is all very well but you can t come from no one knows where and order us off like this remember ive been fighting for our and that s a thing you never did you preferred about in the sea the other laughed at this and the young seal began twisting his head from side to side he had just married that year and was making a great fuss about it i ve no nursery to fight for said i only want to show you all a place where you will be safe what s the use of fighting oh if you re trying to back out of course i ve no more to say said the young seal with an ugly chuckle will you come with me if i win said and a green light came into his eye for he was very angry at having to fight at all very good said the young seal carelessly if you win i ll come he had no time to change his mind for s head was out and his teeth sunk in the of the young seal s neck then he threw himself back on his and hauled his enemy down the beach shook him and knocked him over then roared to the i ve done my best for you these five seasons past i ve found you the island where you ll be safe but unless your the white seal heads are dragged off your silly necks you won t believe tm going to teach you now look out for yourselves told me that never in his life and sees ten thousand big fighting every year never in all his little life did he see anything like s charge into the he flung himself at the biggest sea catch he could find caught him by the throat choked him and him and him till he for mercy and then threw him aside and attacked the next you see had never for four months as the big did every year and his deep sea swimming him in perfect condition and best of all he had never fought before his curly white mane stood up with rage and his eyes and his big dog teeth and he was splendid to look at	39
old sea catch his father saw him tearing past the old about as though they had been and the young in all directions and sea catch gave a roar and shouted he may be a fool but he is the best on the don t tackle your father my son he s with you roared in answer and old sea catch in with his moustache on end blowing like a while and the seal that was going to marry down and admired their men folk it was a gorgeous fight for the two fought as long as there was a seal that dared lift up his head and when there were none they up and down the beach side by side i the book at night just as the northern lights were and flashing through the fog climbed a bare rock and looked down on the scattered and the torn and bleeding now he said i ve taught you your lesson my wig said old sea catch himself up stiffly for le was fearfully the whale himself could not have cut them up worse son fm proud of you and what s more come with you to your island if there is such a place hear you fat pigs of the sea who comes with me to the sea cow s answer or i shall teach you again roared there was a murmur like the ripple of the tide all up and down the we will come said thousands of tired voices we will follow the white seal then dropped his head between his shoulders and shut his eyes proudly he was not a white seal any more but red from head to tail all the same he would have scorned to look at or touch one of his wounds a week later he and his army nearly ten thousand and old went away north to the sea cow s leading them and the that stayed at called them but next spring when they all met off the of the pacific s told such tales of the new beyond sea cow s that more and more left of course it was not all done at once for the are not very clever and they need a long time to turn things over in their minds but year after year more went the white seal away from and and the other to the quiet sheltered where sits all the summer through getting bigger and and stronger each year while the play round him in that sea where no man comes this is a sort of sad seal national i met my mates in the morning and oh but i am old where roaring on the the summer ground swell rolled i heard them lift the chorus that drowned the song the of two million voices strong the song of pleasant stations beside the salt the song of blowing that down the the song of midnight dances that the swell to flame the of before the came i met my mates in the morning i ll never meet them more they came and went in that darkened all the shore and o er the foam as far as voice could reach we hailed the landing parties and we sang them up the beach the of the winter wheat so tall the dripping and the sea fog all the of our all shining smooth and worn i the of the home where we were born i i met my mates in the morning a broken scattered band men shoot us in the water and club us on the land men drive us to the salt house like silly sheep and tame and still we sing before the came wheel down wheel down to southward oh go and tell the deep sea the story of our woe ere empty as the egg the tempest ashore the of shall know their sons no more f at the hole where he went in eye called to skin hear what little eye come up and dance with death t eye to eye and head to head the this shall end when one is dead at thy pleasure turn for turn and twist for twist and hide thee the death has missed woe thee this is the story of the great war that fought single handed through the bath rooms of the big in the tailor bird helped him and the rat who never comes out into the middle of the floor but always round by the wall gave him advice but did the real fighting he was a rather like a little cat m his fur and his tail but quite like a in his head and his habits his eyes and the end of his restless nose were pink he could scratch himself anywhere he pleased with any leg front or back that he chose to use he could up his tail till it looked like a bottle brush and his war cry as he the book through the long grass was one day a high summer flood washed him out of the where he lived with his father and mother and carried him kicking and down a roadside ditch he found a little of grass floating there and clung to it till he lost his senses when he revived he was lying in the hot sun on the middle of a garden path very indeed and a small boy was saying here s a dead let s have a funeral no said his mother let s take him in and dry him perhaps he isn t really dead they took him into the house and a big man picked him up between his finger and thumb and said he was not dead but half choked so they wrapped him in cotton wool and warmed him over a little fire and he opened his eyes	39
movement in the grass behind he knew that in the garden meant death sooner or later for him and his family but he wanted to get off his guard so he dropped his head a little and put it on one side let us talk he said you eat eggs why should not i eat birds behind you look behind you sang knew better than to waste time in staring he jumped up in the air as high as he could go and just under him by the head of s wicked wife she had crept up behind him as he was talking to make an end of him and he heard her savage hiss as the stroke missed he came down almost across her back and if he had been an old he would have known that then was the time to break her back with one bite but he was afraid of the terrible return stroke of the he bit indeed but did not bite long enough and he jumped clear of the tail leaving torn and angry wicked wicked said up as high as he could reach toward the nest in the thorn bush but had built it out of reach of and it only swayed to and fro felt his eyes growing red and hot when a s eyes grow red he is angry and he sat back on his tail and hind legs like a little and looked all round him and with rage but and had disappeared into the grass when a snake its stroke it never says anything or gives any sign of what it means to do next did not care to follow them for he did not feel sure that he could manage two at once so he trotted off to the gravel path near the house and sat down to think it was a serious matter for him if you read the old books of natural history you will find they say that when the fights the ike happens to get bitten he runs off and eats some l k that him that is not true the m b only a matter of quickness of eye and l p foot snake s blow against s jump an as no eye can follow the motion of a snake s head when it strikes this makes things much more wonderful than any magic knew he was a young and it made him all the more pleased to think that he had managed to escape a blow from behind it gave him confidence in himself and when came running down the path was ready to be but just as was stooping something a little in the dust and a tiny voice said be careful i am death it was the dusty brown that lies for choice on the dusty earth and his bite is as dangerous as the s but he is so small that nobody thinks of him and so he does the more harm to people s eyes grew red again and he danced up to with the peculiar rocking swaying the book motion that he had inherited from his family it looks very funny but it is so perfectly balanced a gait that you can fly off from it at any angle you please and in dealing with this is an advantage if had only known he was doing a much more dangerous thing than fighting for is so small and can turn so quickly that unless bit him close to the back of the head he would get the return stroke in his eye or his lip but did not know his eyes were all red and he rocked back and forth looking for a good place to hold struck out jumped sideways and tried to run in but the wicked little dusty gray head lashed within a of his shoulder and he had to jump over the body and the head followed his heels close shouted to the house oh look here our is killing a snake and heard a scream from s mother his father ran out with a stick but by the time he came up had out once too far and had sprung jumped on the snake s back dropped his head far between his fore legs bitten as high up the back as he could get hold and rolled away that bite and was just going to eat him up from the tail after the custom of his family at dinner when he remembered that a full meal makes a slow and if he wanted all his strength and quickness ready he must keep himself thin he went away for a dust bath under the oil bushes while s father beat the dead what is the use of that thought i have settled it all and then s mother picked him up from the dust and him crying that he had saved from death and s father said that he was a providence and looked on with big scared eyes was rather amused at all the fuss which of course he did not understand s mother might just as well have for playing in the dust was thoroughly enjoying himself that night at dinner walking to and fro among the wine glasses on the table he might have stuffed himself three times over with nice things but he remembered and and though it was very pleasant to be patted and by s mother and to sit on s shoulder his eyes would get red from time to time and he would go off into his long war cry of carried him off to bed and insisted on sleeping under his chin was too well bred to bite or scratch but as soon as was asleep he went off for his nightly walk round the house and in the dark he ran up against the rat creeping round by the wall is a	39
broken hearted little beast he and all the night trying to make up his mind to run into the middle of the room but he never gets there don t kill me said almost weeping don t kill me do you think a snake rats said scornfully those who kill get killed by said more sorrowfully than ever and how am i to be sure that won t mistake me for you some dark night the book there s not the least danger said but is in the garden and i know you don t go there my cousin the rat told said and then he stopped told you what h sh is everywhere you should have talked to in the garden i didn t r so you must tell me quick or i ll bite you sat down and cried till the tears rolled off his whiskers i am a man he sobbed i never had spirit enough to run out into the middle of the room h sh i mustn t tell you anything can t you ar listened the house was as still as still but he thought he could just catch the faintest scratch scratch in the world a noise as faint as that of a walking on a window pane the dry scratch of a snake s scales on that s or he said to himself and he is crawling into the bath room you re right i should have talked to he stole off to s bath room but there was nothing there and then to s mother s at the bottom of the smooth plaster wall there was a brick pulled out to make a for the bath water and as stole in by the where the bath is put he heard and whispering together outside in the moonlight when the house is emptied of people said to her husband he will have to go and then the garden will be our own again go in quietly and remember that the big man who killed is the first one to bite then come out and tell me and we will hunt for together but are you sure that there is anything to be gained by killing the people said everything when there were no people in the did we have any in the garden so long as the is empty we are king and queen of the garden and remember that as soon as our eggs in the bed as they may tomorrow our children will need room and quiet i had not thought of that said i will go but there is no need that we should hunt for the book afterward i will kill the big man and his wife and the child if i can and come away quietly then the will be empty and will go all over with rage and hatred at this and then s head came through the and his five feet of cold body followed it angry as he was was very frightened as he saw the size of the big himself up raised his head and looked into the in the dark and could see his eyes glitter now if i kill him here will know and if i fight him on the open floor the odds are in his favour what am i to do said waved to and fro and then heard him drinking from the biggest water jar was used to fill the bath that is good said the snake now when was killed the big man had a stick he may have that stick still but when he comes in to in the morning he will not have a stick i shall wait here till he comes do you hear me i shall wait here in the cool till there was no answer from outside so knew had gone away himself down by round the at the bottom of the water jar and stayed still as death after an hour he began to move muscle by muscle towards the jar was asleep and looked at his big back wondering which would be the best place for a good hold if i don t break his back at the first jump said he can still fight and if he fights o he looked at the thickness of the neck below the hood but that was too much for him and a bite near the tail would only make savage it must be the head he said at last the head above the hood and when i am once there i must not let go then he jumped the head was lying a little clear of the water jar under the curve of it and as his teeth met his back against the of the red to hold down the head this gave him just one second s purchase and he made the most of it then he was battered to and fro as a rat is shaken by a dog to and fro on the floor up and down and round in great circles but his eyes were red and he held on as the body over the floor the tin and the soap dish and the flesh brush and against the tin side of the bath as he held he closed his jaws and for he made sure he would be to death and for the honour of his family he preferred to be found with his teeth locked he was di aching and felt shaken to pieces when something went off like a just behind him a hot wind knocked him senseless and red fire his fur the big man had been by the noise and had fired both barrels of a shot gun into just behind the hood held on with his eyes shut for now he was quite sure he was dead but the head did not move and	39
the big man picked him up and said it s the again the little chap has i the book saved our lives now then s mother came in with a very white face and saw what was left of and dragged himself to s bedroom and spent half the rest of the night shaking himself tenderly to find out whether he really was broken into forty pieces as he fancied when morning came he was very stiff but well pleased with his doings now i have to settle with and she will be worse than five and there s no knowing when the eggs she spoke of will goodness i must go and see he said without waiting for breakfast ran to the thorn bush where was singing a song of triumph at the top of his voice the news of s death was all over the garden for the had thrown the body on the rubbish heap oh you stupid of feathers said angrily is this the time to sing is dead is dead is dead sang the caught him by the head and held fast the big man brought the bang stick and fell in two pieces he will never eat my babies again a that s true enough but where s said looking carefully round him came to the bath room and called for n g went on and came out on the end of a stick the picked him up on the end of a stick and threw him upon the let us sing about the great the red eyed and filled his throat and sang if i could get up to your nest i d roll your babies out said you don t know when to do the right thing at the right time you re safe enough in your nest there but it s war for me down here stop singing a minute for the great the beautiful s sake i will stop said what is it o of the terrible where is for the third time on the rubbish heap by the stables mourning for great is with the white teeth bother my white teeth have you ever heard where she keeps her eggs the book in the bed on the end nearest the wall where the sun strikes nearly all day she hid them there weeks ago and you never thought it worth while to tell me the end nearest the wall you said you are not going to eat her eggs not eat exactly no if you have a grain of sense you will fly oflf to the stables and pretend that your wing is broken and let chase you away to this bush i must get to the bed and if i went there now she d see mc was a feather little fellow who could never hold more than one idea at a time in his head and just because he knew that s children were born in eggs like his own he didn t think at first that it was fair to kill them but his wife was a sensible bird and she knew that s eggs meant young later on so she flew off from the nest and left to keep the babies warm and continue his song about the death of was very like a man in some ways she fluttered in front of by the and cried out oh my wing is broken the boy in the house threw a stone at me and broke it then she fluttered more desperately than ever lifted up her head and you warned when i would have killed him indeed and truly youve chosen a bad place to be lame in and she moved toward s wife slipping along over the dust the boy broke it with a stone shrieked s wife well it may be some consolation to you when i the book you re dead to know that i shall settle accounts with the boy my husband lies on the rubbish heap this morning but before night the boy in the house will lie very still what is the use of running away i am sure to catch you little fool look at me s wife knew better than to do z for a bird who looks at a snake s eyes gets so frightened that she cannot move s wife fluttered on sorrowfully and never leaving the ground and quickened her pace heard them going up the path from the stables and he for the end of the near the wall there in the warm litter above the very hidden he found eggs about the size of a s eggs but with skins instead of shells i was not a day too soon he said for he could see the baby curled up inside the skin and he knew that the minute they were they could each kill a man or a he bit off the tops of the eggs as fast as he could taking care to crush the young and turned over the litter from time to time to see whether he had missed any at last there were only three eggs left and began to chuckle to himself when he heard s wife screaming i led toward the house and she has gone into the and oh come quickly she means killing smashed two eggs and tumbled backward down the bed with the third egg in his mouth and to the as hard as he could put foot to the ground and his mother and father were there at early breakfast but saw that they were not eating anything they sat stone still and their faces were white was up on the by s chair within easy striking distance of s bare leg and she was swaying to and fro singing a song of triumph son of the big man that killed she stay still i	39
am not ready yet wait a little keep very still all you three if you move i strike and if you do not move i strike oh foolish people who killed my s eyes were fixed on his father and all his father could do was to whisper sit still you mustn t move keep still then came up and cried turn round turn and fight all in good time said she without moving her eyes i will settle my account with you presently look at your friends they are still and white they are afraid they dare not move and if you come a step nearer i strike look at your eggs said in the bed near the wall go and look the big snake turned half round and saw the egg on the ah h give it to me she said put his one on each side of the and his eyes were blood red what price for a snake s egg for a young for a young king for the last the very last of the brood the are eating all the others down by the bed z the book spun clear round forgetting everything for the sake of the one egg and saw s father shoot out a big hand catch by the shoulder and drag him across the little table with the tea cups safe and out of reach of i chuckled the boy is safe and it was i i i that caught by the hood last night in the bath room then he began to jump up and down all four feet together his head close to the floor he threw me to and fro but he could not shake me off he was dead before the big man blew him in two i did it come then come and fight with me you shall not be a widow long saw that she had lost her chance of killing and the egg lay between s give me the egg give me the last of my eggs and i will go away and never come back she said lowering her hood yes you will go away and you will never come back for you will go to the with fight widow the big man has gone for his gun fight was bounding all round keeping just out of reach of her stroke his little eyes like hot coals gathered herself together and flung out at him jumped up and backwards again and again and again she struck and each time her head came with a on the of the and she gathered herself together like a watch spring then danced in a circle to get behind her and spun round to keep her head to his head so that the rustle of her tail on the sounded like dry leaves blown along by the wind he had f r the egg it still on the and came and nearer to it till at last while k li was grass breath she caught it in her mouth turned to the steps and flew like arrow down the path behind her when the runs for her life she goes like a whip lash across a horse s neck ra knew that he must catch her or behind all would begin again she headed straight for the long by the thorn bush and as he was running heard still singing his foolish song of triumph but s wife was the book wiser she flew off her nest as came along and her wings about s head if had helped they might have turned her but only lowered her hood and went on still the instant s delay brought up to her and as she plunged into the rat hole where she and used to live his little white teeth were clenched on her tail and he went down with her and very few however wise and old they may be care to follow a into its hole it was dark in the hole and never knew when it might open out and give room to turn and strike at him he held on savagely and stuck out his feet to act as on the dark slope of the hot moist earth then the grass by the mouth of the hole stopped waving and said it is all over with we must sing his is dead for will surely kill him so he sang a very mournful song that he made up on the spur of the minute and just as he got to the most touching part the grass quivered again and covered with dirt dragged himself out of the hole leg by leg his whiskers stopped with a little shout shook some of the dust out of his fur and it is all over he said the widow will never come out again and the red that live between the grass stems heard him and began to troop down one after another to see if he had spoken the truth curled himself up in the grass and slept where he was slept and slept till it was late in the afternoon for he had done a hard day s work now he said when he awoke i will go back to the house tell the and he will tell the garden that is dead the is a bird who makes a noise exactly like the beating of a little hammer on a copper pot and the reason he is always making it is because he is the town to every indian garden and tells all the news to everybody who cares to listen as went up the path he heard his attention notes like a tiny dinner and then the steady i is dead is dead i that iso the book set all the birds in the garden singing and the for and used to eat as well	39
as little birds when got to the house and s mother she looked very white still for she had been fainting and s father came out and almost cried over him and that night he ate all that was given him till he could eat no more and went to bed on s shoulder where s mother saw him when she came to look late at night he saved our lives and s life she said to her husband just think he saved all lives woke up with a jump for the are light oh it s you said he what are you for all the are dead and if they weren t i m here had a right to be proud of himself but he did not grow too proud and he kept that garden as a should keep it with tooth and jump and spring and bite till never a dared show its head inside the walls sung in honour of singer and tailor am i doubled the joys that i know proud of my to the sky proud of the house that i over and under so i my music so i the house that i sing to your again mother o lift up your head evil that us is slain death in the garden lies dead terror that hid in the roses is impotent flung on the and dead who has delivered us who tell me his nest and his name the the true with of flame the ivory the hunter with of flame give him the thanks of the birds bowing with tail feathers spread praise him with words nay i will praise him instead hear i will sing you the praise of the bottle with of red here interrupted so the rest of the song is lost of the i will remember i was i am sick of rope and chain i will remember my old and all my affairs i will not sell my back to man for a bundle of sugar cane i will go out to my own kind and the wood folk in their i will go out until the day until the morning break out to he winds kiss the waters clean caress i will foi et my ankle ring and snap my i will my lost loves and which means black snake had served the indian government in every way that an elephant could serve it for forty seven years and as he was fully twenty years old when he was caught that makes him nearly seventy a ripe age for an elephant he remembered pushing with a big leather on his forehead at a gun stuck in deep mud and that was before the war of and he had not then come to his full strength his mother the darling who had been caught in the same drive with told him before his little milk had dropped out that who were afraid a ways got hurt and knew that that advice was good for the first time that he y the book saw a shell burst he backed screaming into a stand of piled and the pricked him in all his places so before he was twenty five he gave up being afraid and so he was the best loved and the best looked after elephant in the service of the government of india he had carried tents twelve hundred pounds weight of tents on the march in upper india he had been hoisted into a ship at the end of a and taken for days across the water and made to carry a mortar on his back in a strange and rocky country very far from india and had seen the emperor lying dead in and had come back again in the steamer entitled so the soldiers said to the war he had seen his die of cold and and starvation and up at a place called ah ten years later and afterward he had been sent down thousands of miles south to haul and pile big of in the timber yards at there he had half killed an young elephant who was his fair share of work after that he was taken off timber and employed with a few score other who were trained to the business in helping to catch wild among the hills are very strictly preserved by the indian government there is one whole department which does nothing else but hunt them and catch them and break them in and send them up and down the country as they are needed for work stood ten fair feet at the shoulders and his had been cut off short at five feet and bound round the ends to prevent them with bands of copper but he could do more of the i with those than any elephant could do with the real sharpened ones when after weeks and weeks of cautious driving of scattered across the hills the forty or fifty wild monsters were driven into the last and the big drop gate made of tree trunks lashed together down behind them at the word of command would go into that generally at night when the of the made it difficult to judge distances and picking out the biggest and wildest of the mob would hammer him and him into quiet while the men on the backs of the other and tied the smaller ones there was nothing in the way of fighting that the old wise black snake did not know for he had stood up more than once in his time to the charge of the wounded tiger and curling up his soft trunk to be out of harm s way had knocked the springing brute sideways in mid air with a quick cut of his head that he had invented all by himself had knocked him over and	39
upon him with his huge knees till the life went out with a gasp and a howl and there was only a striped thing on the ground for to pull by the tail yes said big his driver the son of black who had taken him to and of of the who had seen him caught there is nothing that the black snake fears except me he has seen three generations of us feed him and groom him and he will live to see four he is afraid of me also said little standing up to his full height of four feet with only one rag upon him he was ten years old the eldest of the son of big and according to custom he would take his father s place on s neck when he grew up and would handle the heavy iron the elephant that had been worn smooth by his father and his grandfather and his great grandfather he knew what he was talking of for he had been born under s shadow had played with the end of his trunk before he could walk had taken him down to water as soon as he could walk and would no more have dreamed of his shrill little orders than he would have dreamed of killing him on that day when big carried the little brown baby under s and told him to salute his master that was to be yes said little he is afraid of and he took long strides up to called him a fat old pig and made him lift up his feet one after the other said little thou art a big elephant and he his head quoting his father the government may pay for but they belong to us when thou art old there will come some rich and he will buy thee from the government on account of thy size and thy manners and then thou wilt have nothing to do but to carry gold in thy ears and a gold on thy back and a red cloth covered with gold on thy sides and walk at the head of the of the king then i shall sit on thy neck o with a silver and men will run before us with golden sticks crying room for the king s elephant that will be good but not so good as this hunting in the the book said big thou art a boy and as wild as a calf this running up and down among the hills is not the best government service i am getting old and i do not love wild give me brick elephant lines one stall to each elephant and big to tie them to safely and flat broad roads to exercise upon instead of this come and go the were good there was a close by and only three hours work a day i little remembered the and said nothing he very preferred the camp life and hated those broad flat roads with the daily for grass in the reserve and the long hours when there was nothing to do except to watch in his what little liked was to scramble up bridle paths that only an elephant could take the dip into the valley below the glimpses of the wild miles away the rush of the frightened pig and under s feet the blinding warm rains when all the hills and valleys smoked the beautiful misty mornings when nobody knew where they would camp that night the steady cautious drive of the wild and the mad rush and blaze and of the last night s drive when the poured into the like in a found that they could not get out and flung themselves at the heavy posts only to be driven back by and and of blank even a little boy could be of use there and was as useful as three boys he would get his torch and wave it i o the book and yell with the best but the really good time came when the driving out began and the that is the looked like a picture of the end of the world and men had to make signs to one another because they could not hear themselves speak then little would climb up to the top of one of the quivering posts his brown hair flying loose all over his shoulders and he looking like a in the torch light and as soon as there was a lull you could hear his of encouragement to above the and crashing and snapping of ropes and groans of the mai go on go on black snake do give him the careful careful i mar hit him hit him mind the post hai a ah he would shout and the big fight between and the wild elephant would sway to and fro across the and the old elephant would wipe the sweat out of their eyes and find time to nod to little with joy on the top of the posts he did more than one night he slid down from the post and slipped in between the and threw up the loose end of a rope which had dropped to a driver who was trying to get a purchase on the leg of a kicking young calf always give more trouble than animals saw him caught him in his trunk and handed him up to big who him then and there and put him back on the post next morning he gave him a scolding i of the i i and said are not good brick elephant lines and a little tent carrying enough that thou must needs go elephant catching on thy own account little worthless now those foolish hunters whose pay is less than my pay have spoken to of the matter little was frightened he did not know much of white men but was the greatest white man in the	39

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