“I have a little cry against thee, Gray Brother. Why came ye not all four when I called so long ago?”

“So long ago?

It was but last night. I — we — were singing in the Jungle the new songs, for this is the Time of New Talk. Rememberest thou?”

“Truly, truly.”

“And as soon as the songs were sung,” Gray Brother went on earnestly, “I followed thy trail. I ran from all the others and followed hot-foot. But, O Little Brother, what hast THOU done, eating and sleeping with the Man-Pack?”

“If ye had come when I called, this had never been,” said Mowgli, running much faster.

“And now what is to be?”