alone; and the four children of
Mother and Father Wolf said that they would hunt with him. But it is not
easy to change one's life all in a minute--particularly in the Jungle.
The first thing Mowgli did, when the disorderly Pack had slunk off, was
to go to the home-cave, and sleep for a day and a night. Then he told
Mother Wolf and Father Wolf as much as they could understand of his
adventures among men; and when he made the morning sun flicker up and
down the blade of his skinning-knife,--the same he had skinned Shere
Khan with,--they said he had learned something. Then Akela and Gray
Brother had to explain their share of the great buffalo-drive in the
ravine, and Baloo toiled up the hill to hear all about it, and Bagheera
scratched himself all over with pure delight at the way in which Mowgli
had managed his war.

It was long after sunrise, but no one dreamed of going to sleep, and
from time to time, during the talk, Mother Wolf would throw up her head,
and sniff a deep snuff of satisfaction as the wind brought her the smell
of the tiger-skin on the Council Rock.

"But for Akela and Gray Brother here," Mowgli said, at the end, "I could
have done nothing. Oh, mother, mother! if thou hadst seen the black
herd-bulls pour down the ravine, or hurry through the gates when the
Man-Pack flung stones at me!"

"I am glad I did not see that last," said Mother Wolf stiffly. "It is
not MY custom to suffer my cubs to be driven to and fro like jackals.
_I_ would have taken a price from the Man-Pack; but I would have spared
the woman who gave thee the milk. Yes, I would have spared her alone."

"Peace, peace, Raksha!" said Father Wolf, lazily. "Our Frog has come
back again--so wise that his own father must lick his feet; and what is
a cut, more or less, on the head? Leave Men alone." Baloo and Bagheera
both echoed: "Leave Men alone."

Mowgli, his head on Mother Wolf's side, smiled contentedly, and said
that, for his own part, he never wished to see, or hear, or smell Man
again.

"But what," said Akela, cocking one ear--"but what if men do not leave
thee alone, Little Brother?"

"We be FIVE," said Gray Brother, looking round at the company, and
snapping his jaws on the last word.

"We also might attend to that hunting," said Bagheera, with a little
switch-switch of his tail, looking at Baloo. "But why think of men now,
Akela?"

"For this reason," the Lone Wolf answered: "when that yellow chief's
hide was hung up on the roc