A Jungle Story

It was a warm, still night in the jungle and the animals were just starting to stir after the day's sleep, ready for the nightly hunt. Father wolf lay across the entrance to his den. He stretched and shook the sleep from each paw. Mother wolf lay inside the cave feeding her two young cubs.

There was a rustle of tall grass, and into the clearing crawled Tabaqui, the sneaking jackal. "How are your beautiful children this fair night? Did you know Shere Khan was hunting in this part of the jungle?"

" Trouble always follows when someone changes their hunting ground" , grumbled father wolf.

Somewhere a short distance away came a deep throated roar. This was followed by screaming, yelling and much confusion. Father wolf stood, every muscle ready for action. The grass rustled, and into the clearing stumbled a little brown boy. He crawled right past father wolf into the den and snuggled in between the two cubs, near Mother wolf.

Outside Shere Khan, the tiger, came roaring, howling and shouting, "Give me my man cub."

Now Shere Khan had come upon a woodcutter and his wife and their little boy sitting round their fire. With a mighty spring he had leapt at them, missed, and one paw had landed in the fire. Now he was mad with rage.

Mother wolf put her head to the cave entrance and said as fiercely as she could, "Go away, you shall not have the man cub, he has made himself at home among my cubs. He has earned a place in my family."

Shere Khan knew better than to argue with an enraged wolf, so he growled and mumbled that one day he would have his prey. Mother wolf turned and looked at the little boy.

She said, "Not a hair on his body. He is just like a frog. I shall call him Mowgli, which means little frog.

(This is the condensed story of how Mowgli came to be with the wolves).