Page 203 - THE JUNGLE BOOK

The Jungle Book

The morning broke in one sheet of pale yellow behind
the green hills, and the booming stopped with the first ray,
as though the light had been an order. Before Little
Toomai had got the ringing out of his head, before even

he had shifted his position, there was not an elephant in
sight except Kala Nag, Pudmini, and the elephant with the
rope-galls, and there was neither sign nor rustle nor
whisper down the hillsides to show where the others had
gone.
Little Toomai stared again and again. The clearing, as
he remembered it, had grown in the night. More trees
stood in the middle of it, but the undergrowth and the
jungle grass at the sides had been rolled back. Little
Toomai stared once more. Now he understood the
trampling. The elephants had stamped out more room—
had stamped the thick grass and juicy cane to trash, the
trash into slivers, the slivers into tiny fibers, and the fibers
into hard earth.
‘Wah!’ said Little Toomai, and his eyes were very
heavy. ‘Kala Nag, my lord, let us keep by Pudmini and go
to Petersen Sahib’s camp, or I shall drop from thy neck.’
The third elephant watched the two go away, snorted,
wheeled round, and took his own path. He may have

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