‘By the Bull that bought me,’ said Mowgli to himself, ’but all this talking is like another looking over by the Pack!  Well, if I am a man, a man I must be.’

The crowd parted as the woman beckoned Mowgli to her hut, where there was a red lacquered bedstead, a great earthen grain-chest with funny raised patterns on it, half a dozen copper cooking-pots, an image of a Hindu god in a little alcove, and on the wall a real looking-glass, such as they sell at the country fairs for eight cents.

She gave him a long drink of milk and some bread, and then she laid her hand on his head and looked into his eyes; for she thought perhaps that he might be her real son come back from the jungle where the tiger had taken him.  So she said:  ‘Nathoo, O Nathoo!’ Mowgli did not show that he knew the name.  ’Dost thou not remember the day when I gave thee thy new shoes?’ She touched his foot, and it was almost as hard as horn.  ‘No,’ she said, sorrowfully; ’those feet have never worn shoes, but thou art very like my Nathoo, and thou shalt be my son.’

Mowgli was uneasy, because he had never been under a roof before; but as he looked at the thatch, he saw that he could tear it out any time if he wanted to get away, and that the window had no fastenings.  ‘What is the good of a man,’ he said to himself at last, ’if he does not understand man’s talk?  Now I am as silly and dumb as a man would be with us in the jungle.  I must speak their talk.’

He had not learned while he was with the wolves to imitate the challenge of bucks in the jungle and the grunt of the little wild pig for fun.  So, as soon as Messua pronounced a word Mowgli would imitate it almost perfectly, and before dark he had learned the name of many things in the hut.

There was a difficulty at bedtime, because Mowgli would not sleep under anything that looked so like a panther-trap as that hut, and when they shut the door he went through the window.  ’Give him his will,’ said Messua’s husband.  ’Remember he can never till now have slept on a bed.  If he is indeed sent in the place of our son he will not run away.’

So Mowgli stretched himself in some long clean grass at the edge of the field, but before he had closed his eyes a soft gray nose poked him under the chin.

‘Phew!’ said Gray Brother (he was the eldest of Mother Wolfs cubs).  ’This is a poor reward for following thee twenty miles.  Thou smellest of wood-smoke and cattle—­altogether like a man already.  Wake, Little Brother; I bring news.’

‘Are all well in the jungle?’ said Mowgli, hugging him.

’All except the wolves that were burned with the Red Flower.  Now, listen.  Shere Khan has gone away to hunt far off till his coat grows again, for he is badly singed.  When he returns he swears that he will lay thy bones in the Waingunga.’

’There are two words to that.  I also have made a little promise.  But news is always good.  I am tired to-night,—­very tired with new things, Gray Brother,—­but bring me the news always.’