The Lone Wolf must have sprung and missed his hold, for Mowgli heard
the snap of his teeth and then a yelp as the Sambhur knocked him over
with his fore foot.

He did not wait for anything more, but dashed on; and the yells grew
fainter behind him as he ran into the croplands where the villagers
lived.

'Bagheera spoke truth,' he panted, as he nestled down in some
cattle-fodder by the window of a hut. 'To-morrow is one day both for
Akela and for me.'

Then he pressed his face close to the window and watched the fire on
the hearth. He saw the husbandman's wife get up and feed it in the
night with black lumps; and when the morning came and the mists were
all white and cold, he saw the man's child pick up a wicker pot
plastered inside with earth, fill it with lumps of red-hot charcoal,
put it under his blanket, and go out to tend the cows in the byre.

'Is that all?' said Mowgli. 'If a cub can do it, there is nothing to
fear'; so he strode round the corner and met the boy, took the pot
from his hand, and disappeared into the mist while the boy howled
with fear.

'They are very like me,' said Mowgli, blowing into the pot, as he had
seen the woman do. 'This thing will die if I do not give it things to
eat'; and he dropped twigs and dried bark on the red stuff. Half-way
up the hill he met Bagheera with the morning dew shining like
moonstones on his coat.