`` It is an order , '' said Mowgli . `` I am a village herd for a while . What news of Shere Khan ? '' `` He has come back to this country , and has waited here a long time for thee . Now he has gone off again , for the game is scarce . But he means to kill thee . '' `` Very good , '' said Mowgli . `` So long as he is away do thou or one of the four brothers sit on that rock , so that I can see thee as I come out of the village . When he comes back wait for me in the ravine by the dhak tree in the center of the plain . We need not walk into Shere Khan 's mouth . '' Then Mowgli picked out a shady place , and lay down and slept while the buffaloes grazed round him . Herding in India is one of the laziest things in the world . The cattle move and crunch , and lie down , and move on again , and they do not even low . They only grunt , and the buffaloes very seldom say anything , but get down into the muddy pools one after another , and work their way into the mud till only their noses and staring china-blue eyes show above the surface , and then they lie like logs . The sun makes the rocks dance in the heat , and the herd children hear one kite -LRB- never any more -RRB- whistling almost out of sight overhead , and they know that if they died , or a cow died , that kite would sweep down , and the next kite miles away would see him drop and follow , and the next , and the next , and almost before they were dead there would be a score of hungry kites come out of nowhere . Then they sleep and wake and sleep again , and weave little baskets of dried grass and put grasshoppers in them ; or catch two praying mantises and make them fight ; or string a necklace of red and black jungle nuts ; or watch a lizard basking on a rock , or a snake hunting a frog near the wallows . Then they sing long , long songs with odd native quavers at the end of them , and the day seems longer than most people 's whole lives , and perhaps they make a mud castle with mud figures of men and horses and buffaloes , and put reeds into the men 's hands , and pretend that they are kings and the figures are their armies , or that they are gods to be worshiped . Then evening comes and the children call , and the buffaloes lumber up out of the sticky mud with noises like gunshots going off one after the other , and they all string across the gray plain back to the twinkling village lights . Day after day Mowgli would lead the buffaloes out to their wallows , and day after day he would see Gray Brother 's back a mile and a half away across the plain -LRB- so he knew that Shere Khan had not come back -RRB- , and day after day he would lie on the grass listening to the noises round him , and dreaming of old days in the jungle . If Shere Khan had made a false step with his lame paw up in the jungles by the Waingunga , Mowgli would have heard him in those long , still mornings .
At last a day came when he did not see Gray Brother at the signal place , and he laughed and headed the buffaloes for the ravine by the dhk tree , which was all covered XXXXX golden-red flowers .
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