"I?" said Mowgli indignantly, sitting up in the water. "I have
no long fur to cover my bones, but--but if THY hide were taken
off, Baloo----"

Hathi shook all over at the idea, and Baloo said severely:

"Man-cub, that is not seemly to tell a Teacher of the Law.
Never have I been seen without my hide."

"Nay, I meant no harm, Baloo; but only that thou art, as it
were, like the cocoanut in the husk, and I am the same cocoanut
all naked. Now that brown husk of thine----" Mowgli was sitting
cross-legged, and explaining things with his forefinger in his
usual way, when Bagheera put out a paddy paw and pulled him
over backward into the water.

"Worse and worse," said the Black Panther, as the boy rose
spluttering. "First Baloo is to be skinned, and now he is a
cocoanut. Be careful that he does not do what the ripe
cocoanuts do."

"And what is that?" said Mowgli, off his guard for the minute,
though that is one of the oldest catches in the Jungle.

"Break thy head," said Bagheera quietly, pulling him
under again.

"It is not good to make a jest of thy teacher," said the bear,
when Mowgli had been ducked for the third time.