Page 182 - THE JUNGLE BOOK

The Jungle Book

red cloth covered with gold on thy sides, and walk at the
head of the processions of the King. Then I shall sit on thy
neck, O Kala Nag, with a silver ankus, and men will run
before us with golden sticks, crying, ‘Room for the King’s

elephant!’ That will be good, Kala Nag, but not so good as
this hunting in the jungles.’
‘Umph!’ said Big Toomai. ‘Thou art a boy, and as wild
as a buffalo-calf. This running up and down among the
hills is not the best Government service. I am getting old,
and I do not love wild elephants. Give me brick elephant
lines, one stall to each elephant, and big stumps to tie
them to safely, and flat, broad roads to exercise upon,
instead of this come-and-go camping. Aha, the Cawnpore
barracks were good. There was a bazaar close by, and only
three hours’ work a day.’
Little Toomai remembered the Cawnpore elephant-
lines and said nothing. He very much preferred the camp
life, and hated those broad, flat roads, with the daily
grubbing for grass in the forage reserve, and the long hours
when there was nothing to do except to watch Kala Nag
fidgeting in his pickets.
What Little Toomai liked was to scramble up bridle
paths that only an elephant could take; the dip into the
valley below; the glimpses of the wild elephants browsing

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