Читать «Маугли / Mowgli» онлайн - страница 11

“This is my child,” she said. “I had lost him when he was a baby.”

The villagers decided that she could keep him, so she took him to her hut. She fed him milk and cared for him. At night, she made a bed for him on a wooden cot. Mowgli lay down on it, but he had never slept on a cot before, so he went out of the hut and lay down outside.

In the middle of the night, he felt a cold nose rubbing his face. He looked up and saw Grey Brother, one of his wolf brothers.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Shere Khan has vowed to kill you.”

“Thank you, Grey Brother. Come again tomorrow night and tell me what is going on in the jungle.”

Grey Brother promised and disappeared into the jungle.

Mowgli was a bright boy, and soon learnt many things in the village. He learnt to speak like the other village boys. He was also allowed to sit at the meetings that the villagers held every evening.

“Just like the wolf pack,” thought Mowgli.

After some months, Mowgli was allowed to take a herd of buffaloes to graze. He was happy. At last he had been accepted as one of the village.

He sat on Rama, the fat, black buffalo, and followed the herd. The buffaloes grazed all through the day; the children played and then slept in the afternoon. They returned to the village before sunset.

One day Grey Wolf came and said, “Shere Khan is coming to kill you.”

“Now we shall have some action,” said Mowgli. “But we need others to help us.”

“I am here,” said a voice. Mowgli yelled with joy when he saw Akela.

“Oh Akela, you haven’t forgotten me! I have thought of you often. Thank you for coming. Now here is the plan,” Mowgli said to the two wolves. “We will divide the herd into two. Grey Brother, you take care of one and Akela, you take care of the other.”

The two wolves chased the buffaloes, as they had been told to do. They ran swiftly into the herd and separated it into two halves. The buffaloes, terrified to see the wolves after them, ran and crashed into one another, picked themselves up and ran on.

Mowgli was sitting on Rama’s back and watching. He heard Shere Khan’s growl. The tiger was ready to pounce on him, when he heard the deafening noise of the large herd of buffaloes running towards him from both sides.

Shere Khan knew that he was trapped. He tried to run into the jungle, but there was nowhere he could go. There were frightened buffaloes everywhere, running like mad animals. They ran over him, crushing him, and ran on.

Mowgli got off Rama’s back. Then he and Grey Brother began to skin Shere Khan. He, Mowgli, had vowed to take back the tiger’s skin to the Council Rock. He would keep that promise.

Buldeo, the village headman, came up to him and said, “Let me skin the tiger. I will give you one rupee.”

“Go away,” shouted Mowgli. “The skin is mine.”

Before Buldeo could speak again, Grey Brother jumped up. Buldeo screamed and raced back to the village.

Exercises

1. Переведите на английский язык:

прогонять, хижина, посреди ночи, стадо, заход солнца, оглушающий, сдержать обещание, вождь.

2. Заполните пропуски словами из списка.