"Keep him!" she said. "He came at night, naked, alone and very hungry; but he was not afraid! Look, he has pushed one of my cubs to one side already. And that lame butcher wanted to kill him. Then he would have run off to the Waingunga while the villagers here were angry and wanting revenge! Keep him? Oh, yes, I will keep him. Lie still, little frog. You are Mowgli - I will call you Mowgli the Frog. One day you will hunt Shere Khan in the same way that he hunted you."

"But what will our Pack say?" said Father Wolf. The Law of the Jungle is very clear. When a wolf gets married, if he wants to, he can leave the Pack he belongs to. But as soon as his cubs are old enough to stand on their feet he must bring them to the Pack Council, so the other wolves can see what the cubs look like. Usually the council is held once a month at full moon. After they have been inspected, the cubs can go where they want, and until they have killed their first buck no adult wolf of the Pack can kill one of them. If a wolf is caught after killing a cub, his punishment is death. If you think about it for a minute, you will see that this is necessary.

Father Wolf waited till his cubs could run a little bit. Then, on the night of the Pack Meeting Father Wolf took the cubs and Mowgli and Mother Wolf with him. They went to the Council Rock - a hilltop where a hundred wolves could hide among the large stones. Akela, the great gray Lone Wolf was there. He led the Pack by strength and cleverness. Now he lay on his rock, and below him sat forty or more wolves. They were every size and colour. There were old, strong wolves with white in their fur who could kill a buck by themselves, and there were young black three-year-olds who thought they could.