the animals
begin to travel to that place with their families.

These animals may start from different places a hundred miles apart, and
yet after a few days they will get to that same Water Hole. Of course
they do not all reach it on the same day; but many of the animals stay
near there for a few days, till the rain comes and there is water in
other places. So it does happen that a tiger family may meet again at
the Water Hole, and then there is a happy reunion among them.

_The Truce of the Water Hole_

But the tiger family must not kill a prey at the Water Hole. And all
other flesh-eating animals--lions and leopards, and wolves and
hyenas--must also abstain from killing prey there. Hundreds of pigs and
sheep and deer may have come to drink at the Water Hole--- and every
flesh-eating animal must abstain from killing any one of the pigs or
sheep or deer.

This "Truce of the Water Hole" is one of the greatest wonders of the
jungle. It means that in other parts of the jungle there may be a kind
of war, because flesh-eating animals may kill and eat their prey, but
when all the different animals meet to quench their thirst at the Water
Hole, there must be no war--no killing, no fighting. There must be peace
at that place while the different animals are there.

At the Water Hole the tiger and the lamb may drink together in peace;
and hungry as the tiger may be, he must not hurt the lamb. And the
wonder of it is that the tiger knows that law, and always keeps it.
Likewise all other flesh-eating animals always keep that law; they never
hurt even the weakest and most timid animal at the Water Hole.

They all feel that they have come there for a greater need than
_hunger_--they have come there to quench their _thirst_; and the pain of
thirst is greater than the pain of hunger.

They feel that the pain of thirst is common to them all; that is, they
all suffer from that pain. Different animals _eat_ different things; but
they must all _drink water_. And in that fellow feeling there is peace
among them all.

My dear children, let me impress this upon your minds, while you are
still young. When you grow up, you may sometimes be tempted to doubt
that an all-merciful Providence watches over us. Then remember these
wonders of the jungle that I have described to you. And remember
especially the Water Hole, where all animals are like brothers, where
even the tiger and the lamb drink and lie down together in peace.

C