Ch. 1: How Fear Came

The stream is shrunk--the pool is dry,
And we be comrades, thou and I;
With fevered jowl and dusty flank
Each 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, note
The 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!--loose
The rain that breaks our Water Truce.

The Law of the Jungle--which is by far the oldest law in the
world--has arranged for almost every kind of accident that may
befall the Jungle People, till now its code is as perfect as time
and custom can make it. You will remember that Mowgli
spent a great part 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, that the Law was like the Giant Creeper, because it
dropped across every one's back and no one could escape.
"When thou hast lived as long as I have, Little Brother,
thou wilt see how all the Jungle obeys at least one Law.
And that will be no pleasant sight," said Baloo.

This talk went in at one ear and out at the other, for a boy
who spends his life eating and sleeping does not worry about
anything till it actually stares him in the face. But,
one year, Baloo's words came true, and Mowgli saw all the
Jungle working under the Law.

It began when the winter Rains failed almost entirely, and
Ikki, the Porcupine, meeting Mowgli in a bamboo-thicket, told
him that the wild yams were drying up. Now everybody knows that
Ikki is ridiculously fastidious in his choice of food, and will
eat nothing but the very best and ripest. So Mowgli laughed and
said, "What is that to me?"

"Not much NOW," said Ikki, rattling his quills in a stiff,
uncomfortable way, "but later we shall see. Is there any
more diving into the deep rock-pool below the Bee-Rocks,
Little Brother?"

"No. The foolish water is going all away, and I do not wish
to break my head," said Mowgii, who, in those days, was quite
sure that he knew as much as any five of the Jungle People
put together.

"That is thy loss. A small crack might let in some wisdom."
Ikki ducked quickly to prevent Mowgli from pulling his
nose-bristles, and Mowgli told Baloo what Ikki had said.
Baloo looked very grave, and mumbled half to himself:
"If I were alone I would change my hunting-grounds now,
before the others began to think. And yet--hunting among
strangers ends in fighting; and they might hurt the