Tiger-Tiger
Mowgli knew that he had enemies now and he went far away. He ran until he came to a village in a place with many rocks and narrow valleys. Everywhere Mowgli could see cows and buffaloes. Some little boys were looking after the cows, but when they saw Mowgli, they shouted and ran away. Mowgli walked on until he came to the village.
He sat down by the gate. When a man came out of the village, Mowgli opened his mouth to show that he wanted food. The man ran back into the village and came back with a hundred other people. They all looked at Mowgli and saw the bite-marks on his arms and legs.
‘Look,’ said a man, ‘those are the bite-marks of wolves. He is a wolf-child who has run away from the jungle.’
‘He is a good-looking boy,’ said one of the women. ‘Messua, he looks like you little boy that was taken by the tiger.’
‘Let me look,’ said Messua. ‘Yes, he is thin, but he looks like my son.’
‘Take him to your house, Messua,’ the jungle has given you this one back.’
The women called Messua took Mowgli to her house and gave him milk and bread. This was Mowgli’s first time in a house, and he did not like it. It felt like a prison.
‘But I am a man now,’ he thought, ‘and I must do what men do. I must also learn to speak like men.’ He knew all the many languages of the jungle, and so it was easy for him to learn the sounds of men. That first evening he learnt many words from Messua.
But that night he did not want to sleep inside the house. So he climbed out of the window, and went to sleep in a field near the village. Before he went to sleep, a soft grey nose touched his face. It was Grey Brother, the eldest of Mother Wolf’s cubs.
‘Wake, Little Brother,’ he said. ‘I bring news. Shere Khan has gone away. You burnt his coat with the Red Flower. But he says that, when he comes back, he will kill you.’
‘I remember also what I said about Shere Khan,’ said Mowgli. ‘But it is good to have news. Will you always bring me news, Grey Brother?’
‘Yes, Little Brother. But you will not forget that you are a wolf? You will not forget us when you are with men?’
‘Never,’ replied Mowgli. ‘I will always remember that I love you all.’