Then all the other animals came to the stream, but more to our left—that is, up the stream. Why was that? Think!
I shall tell you. By the time the elephants finish drinking by dipping their trunks into the stream many times, the water begins to get muddy. In fact, after drinking, the elephants jump into the water to have a bath and a swim, as I shall tell you in the next chapter.
So the water gets muddy near the elephants and all the way down stream from that place, as the water flows that way. And as the other animals do not want muddy water to drink, they always go up the stream, where the water is still clear.
That is The Law of the Jungle, though it is not written down in a book, like the laws among men. The Law of the Jungle says that as the elephants are the lords of the jungle, they shall drink first: but they must be careful to drink down the stream, so that all the other animals may have a place higher up, where they can get clear water to drink.
And that law has never been broken, for many thousands of years, among all the different sorts of animals.
But with men the laws among the different sorts of people, called nations, are often broken, because some of them want all the best things and the best places, and do not care if they muddy the water that their neighbors have to drink.
So, my dear children, we can learn many things from the animals, even how to be better men and women when we grow up.