The Jungle Book, part 19 · page 21 2101“Sat down!”102“We sat down--a hundred of us,” the camel went on, “in a big square, and the men piled our packs and saddles, outside the square, and they fired over our backs, the men did, on all sides of the square.”103“What sort of men?104Any men that came along?” said the troop-horse.105“They teach us in riding school to lie down and let our masters fire across us, but Dick Cunliffe is the only man I’d trust to do that.106It tickles my girths, and, besides, I can’t see with my head on the ground.”107“What does it matter who fires across you?” said the camel.108“There are plenty of men and plenty of other camels close by, and a great many clouds of smoke.109I am not frightened then.110I sit still and wait.”111“And yet,” said Billy, “you dream bad dreams and upset the camp at night.112Well, well!113Before I’d lie down, not to speak of sitting down, and let a man fire across me, my heels and his head would have something to say to each other.114Did you ever hear anything so awful as that?”115There was a long silence, and then one of the gun bullocks lifted up his big head and said, “This is very foolish indeed.116There is only one way of fighting.”117“Oh, go on,” said Billy.118“Please don’t mind me.119I suppose you fellows fight standing on your tails?”120“Only one way,” said the two together.121(They must have been twins.)122“This is that way.123To put all twenty yoke of us to the big gun as soon as Two Tails trumpets.”124(“Two Tails” is camp slang for the elephant.)125“What does Two Tails trumpet for?” said the young mule.126“To show that he is not going any nearer to the smoke on the other side.127Two Tails is a great coward.128Then we tug the big gun all together--Heya--Hullah!129Heeyah!130Hullah!131We do not climb like cats nor run like calves.132We go across the level plain, twenty yoke of us, till we are unyoked again, and we graze while the big guns talk across the plain to some town with mud walls, and pieces of the wall fall out, and the dust goes up as though many cattle were coming home.”133“Oh!134And you choose that time for grazing?” said the young mule.135“That time or any other.136Eating is always good.137We eat till we are yoked up again and tug the gun back to where Two Tails is waiting for it.138Sometimes there are big guns in the city that speak back, and some of us are killed, and then there is all the more grazing for those that are left.139This is Fate.140None the less, Two Tails is a great coward.141That is the proper way to fight.142We are brothers from Hapur.143Our father was a sacred bull of Shiva.144We have spoken.”145“Well, I’ve certainly learned something tonight,” said the troop-horse.146“Do you gentlemen of the screw-gun battery feel inclined to eat when you are being fired at with big guns, and Two Tails is behind you?”147“About as much as we feel inclined to sit down and let men sprawl all over us, or run into people with knives.148I never heard such stuff.149A mountain ledge, a well-balanced load, a driver you can trust to let you pick your own way, and I’m your mule.150But--the other things--no!” said Billy, with a stamp of his foot.151“Of course,” said the troop horse, “everyone is not made in the same way, and I can quite see that your family, on your father’s side, would fail to understand a great many things.”152“Never you mind my family on my father’s side,” said Billy angrily, for every mule hates to be reminded that his father was a donkey.153“My father was a Southern gentleman, and he could pull down and bite and kick into rags every horse he came across.154Remember that, you big brown Brumby!”155Brumby means wild horse without any breeding.156Imagine the feelings of Sunol if a car-horse called her a “skate,” and you can imagine how the Australian horse felt.157I saw the white of his eye glitter in the dark.158“See here, you son of an imported Malaga jackass,” he said between his teeth, “I’d have you know that I’m related on my mother’s side to Carbine, winner of the Melbourne Cup, and where I come from we aren’t accustomed to being ridden over roughshod by any parrot-mouthed, pig-headed mule in a pop-gun pea-shooter battery.159Are you ready?”160“On your hind legs!” squealed Billy.161They both reared up facing each other, and I was expecting a furious fight, when a gurgly, rumbly voice, called out of the darkness to the right--“Children, what are you fighting about there?162Be quiet.”163Both beasts dropped down with a snort of disgust, for neither horse nor mule can bear to listen to an elephant’s voice.164“It’s Two Tails!” said the troop-horse.165“I can’t stand him.166A tail at each end isn’t fair!”167“My feelings exactly,” said Billy, crowding into the troop-horse for company.168“We’re very alike in some things.”169“I suppose we’ve inherited them from our mothers,” said the troop horse.170“It’s not worth quarreling about.171Hi!172Two Tails, are you tied up?”173“Yes,” said Two Tails, with a laugh all up his trunk.174“I’m picketed for the night.175I’ve heard what you fellows have been saying.176But don’t be afraid.177I’m not coming over.”178The bullocks and the camel said, half aloud, “Afraid of Two Tails--what nonsense!”179And the bullocks went on, “We are sorry that you heard, but it is true.180Two Tails, why are you afraid of the guns when they fire?”181“Well,” said Two Tails, rubbing one hind leg against the other, exactly like a little boy saying a poem, “I don’t quite know whether you’d understand.”182“We don’t, but we have to pull the guns,” said the bullocks.183“I know it, and I know you are a good deal braver than you think you are.184But it’s different with me.185My battery captain called me a Pachydermatous Anachronism the other day.”186“That’s another way of fighting, I suppose?” said Billy, who was recovering his spirits.187“You don’t know what that means, of course, but I do.188It means betwixt and between, and that is just where I am.189I can see inside my head what will happen when a shell bursts, and you bullocks can’t.”190“I can,” said the troop-horse.191“At least a little bit.192I try not to think about it.”193“I can see more than you, and I do think about it.194I know there’s a great deal of me to take care of, and I know that nobody knows how to cure me when I’m sick.195All they can do is to stop my driver’s pay till I get well, and I can’t trust my driver.”1 2← previousThe Jungle Book, part 18next →The Jungle Book, part 20↑ back to The Jungle BookThis page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg236/19/page/2/