Else I should have heard the pheeal. Small wonder the Eaters of Grass are uneasy. How many be the dhole?”

“I have not yet seen. I came hot-foot to thee. Thou art older than Hathi. But oh, Kaa,” — here Mowgli wriggled with sheerjoy, — ”it will be good hunting. Few of us will see another moon.”

“Dost THOU strike in this? Remember thou art a Man; and remember what Pack cast thee out. Let the Wolf look to the Dog. THOU art a Man.”

“Last year’s nuts are this year’s black earth,” said Mowgli. “It is true that I am a Man, but it is in my stomach that this night I have said that I am a Wolf. I called the River and the Trees to remember.

I am of the Free People, Kaa, till the dhole has gone by.”