Bagheera gave him half a dozen love-taps from a panther’s point of view
(they would hardly have waked one of his own cubs), but for a seven-year-old
boy they amounted to as severe a beating as you could wish to avoid. When it
was all over Mowgli sneezed, and picked himself up without a word.
“Now,” said Bagheera, “jump on my back, Little Brother, and we will go
home.”
One of the beauties of Jungle Law is that punishment settles all scores. There
is no nagging afterward.
Mowgli laid his head down on Bagheera’s back and slept so deeply that he
never waked when he was put down in the home-cave.