Page 229 - THE JUNGLE BOOK

The Jungle Book

‘But it is not here,’ said the camel and the bullocks.
‘Why are you so stupid?’
‘It’s vile stuff,’ said Billy. ‘I don’t want to run, but I
don’t want to talk about it.’

‘There you are!’ said Two Tails, waving his tail to
explain.
‘Surely. Yes, we have been here all night,’ said the
bullocks.
Two Tails stamped his foot till the iron ring on it
jingled. ‘Oh, I’m not talking to you. You can’t see inside
your heads.’
‘No. We see out of our four eyes,’ said the bullocks.
‘We see straight in front of us.’
‘If I could do that and nothing else, you wouldn’t be
needed to pull the big guns at all. If I was like my
captain—he can see things inside his head before the firing
begins, and he shakes all over, but he knows too much to
run away—if I was like him I could pull the guns. But if I
were as wise as all that I should never be here. I should be
a king in the forest, as I used to be, sleeping half the day
and bathing when I liked. I haven’t had a good bath for a
month.’
‘That’s all very fine,’ said Billy. ‘But giving a thing a
long name doesn’t make it any better.’

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