But they answered the call from habit; and some of them were lame from the traps they had fallen into, and some limped from shot wounds, and some were mangy from eating bad food, and many were missing. But they came to the Council Rock, all that were left of them, and saw Shere Khan's striped hide on the rock, and the huge claws dangling at the end of the empty dangling feet.
It was then that Mowgli made up a song that came up into his throat all by itself, and he shouted it aloud, leaping up and down on the rattling skin, and beating time with his heels till he had no more breath left, while Gray Brother and Akela howled between the verses.
"Look well, O Wolves.
Have I kept my word?" said Mowgli. And the wolves bayed
"Yes," and one tattered wolf howled:
"Lead us again, O Akela.
Lead us again, O Man-cub, for we be sick of this lawlessness, and we would be the Free People once more."
"Nay," purred Bagheera, "that may not be.
When ye are full-fed, the madness may come upon you again.
Not for nothing are ye called the Free People.
Ye fought for freedom, and it is yours.
Eat it, O Wolves."
"Man-Pack and Wolf-Pack have cast me out," said Mowgli. "Now I will hunt alone in the jungle."
"And we will hunt with thee," said the four cubs.
So Mowgli went away and hunted with the four cubs in the jungle from that day on.
But he was not always alone, because, years afterward, he became a man and married.
But that is a story for grown-ups.