Rudyard Kipling

The Second Jungle Book Rudyard Kipling

The stream is shrunk-the pool is dry, And we be comrades, thou and I; With fevered jowl and dusty flankEach jostling each along the bank; And by one drouthy fear made still, Forgoing thought of quest or kill. Now 'neath his dam the fawn may see, The lean Pack-wolf as cowed as he, And the tall buck, unflinching, noteThe fangs that tore his father's throat. The pools are shrunk-the streams are dry, And we be playmates, thou and I, Till yonder cloud-Good Hunting!-looseThe rain that breaks our Water Truce. The Law of the Jungle-which is by far the oldest law in the world-has arranged foralmost every kind of accident that may befall the Jungle People, till now its code is asperfect as time and custom can make it. You will remember that Mowgli spent a greatpart of his life in the Seeonee Wolf-Pack, learning the Law from Baloo, the Brown Bear;and it was Baloo who told him, when the boy grew impatient at the constant orders, thatthe Law was like the Giant Creeper, because it dropped across every one's back and noone could escape. "When thou hast lived as long as I have, Little Brother, thou wilt seehow all the Jungle obeys at least one Law. And that will be no pleasant sight," said