Cub Scout Booklet All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be translated or adapted into any language, or reproduced, stored or transmitted by any means whatsoever, including illustrations and cover designs, without the prior written authorisation of the Interamerican Scout Office, which represents the owners of the copyright. Reservation of rights applies equally to the national scout associations which are members of the World Organization of the Scout Movement. Copyright registration: 133.001 ISBN: 956-8057-12-9 This first edition of 3,000 copies was printed in June 2003. Interamerican Scout Office Av. Lyon 1085, 6650426, Providencia, Santiago, Chile tel. (56 2) 225 75 61 fax (56 2) 225 65 51 [email protected] www.scout.org/interamerica World Organization of the Scout Movement Cub Scout Booklet You are already at the Trail-Finder Wolf stage! Now you and you think can walk and a little before run faster and acting, too. more freely you must be asking a lot more about the things you don't know You will learn a lot of new things with us You are going to have some good times. We promise. 2 You are also able to help your smaller sisters and brothers in the Pack, who will be beginning to follow in your footsteps. This Booklet belongs to Address Telephone Pack Scout Group I joined the Pack on This Booklet is private property. Please do not read it without permission. Thank you! 3 the adventure of the cold lairs Near the hills of Seonnee, the home of Akela's Free People of the Wolves, were the Cold Lairs. These were the ruins of an old abandoned city which was home to the Bandar-log, hundreds of monkeys who were the people with no law. 4 The Bandar-log were very chaotic, always talking about things they knew nothing about and leaving things half-finished. For that reason, they envied the wolves, because the wolves did know how to organise themselves. They listened to each other, they had a leader and assembled at the Council Rock to talk about really important business. Baloo, the bear, was responsible for teaching the law of the jungle to the wolf-cubs of Seeonee. He had told them not to play with the monkeys because nothing good could be learned from them, but not everyone paid attention to Baloo's advice. Mowgli -who was a member of the Free People in spite of being a human and who sometimes thought he knew everything- said to himself, "How the old bear likes to exaggerate, the monkeys can't be that bad". And so he did play with the Bandar-log and he learned some of their bad habits, like annoying other people and throwing rubbish at other animals to make fun of them. But the monkeys' friendship was false: they had a plan. What they really wanted was to kidnap Mowgli to get him to teach them how to weave branches to build roofs to protect them from the rain. 5 One day Mowgli was sleeping on the branch of a tree when some monkeys leapt on top of him and swept him off towards the Cold Lairs. "Why are you taking me away?" protested Mowgli as he was swung at dizzying speed among the tree tops. "We are taking you to our hideout and you will never be able to come back," was the only reply the monkeys gave him between bursts of shrieking laughter. Mowgli was too frightened to ask any more questions until he could work out what to do. Suddenly, as he thought frantically, he saw a kite, which is a bird like a falcon but larger. He asked the kite to tell his friends in the Seeonee Pack what was happening to him and the kite flew away at high speed to look for them. From up on high, among the tangle of the jungle below, the kite could make out Baloo and Bagheera, the panther, Mowgli's best friends. He swooped down and in his kite's voice, as he continued to beat his wings, he said: 6 "An urgent message I bring from the man-cub who with the Seeonee Pack lives, and Mowgli they call! Greetings!" "Speak, then. It must be important if it is about our Mowgli," replied Baloo, worried and a little annoyed by the kite's habit of speaking backwards. "Kidnapped is he by the monkeys of the people without a law. To the Cold Lairs they have taken him. Hurry and rescue him, because what the monkeys are planning no-one can tell." Bagheera's fur stood up on his back at the news and a shudder ran through Baloo's tremendous body. "Let's look for Kaa, the python. She too is a friend of Mowgli's," said Baloo. He added, "She will be a great help. Monkeys are afraid of snakes because only snakes can climb as high up the trees as they. And snakes can hypnotise monkeys with their eyes and the swaying of their bodies until the monkeys are paralysed." Bagheera and Baloo walked a long way looking for Kaa in the grass and peering up to the highest tree- tops. They looked for her in abandoned storks' nests and in the holes where hedgehogs had once lived. Finally they found her preparing to hunt a morsel to eat, hiding behind some rocks on the river bank. 7 "Good hunting, Kaa!" called Baloo in greeting, "we have come to ask for your help to rescue Mowgli. He has been carried off by the Bandar-log and we are afraid that they may soon kill him through sheer carelessness." "Of course I will help!" replied Kaa. "Mowgli is my friend too. But first we must plan what we are going to do very carefully. Remember that there are only three of us, against hundreds of monkeys." They planned the rescue together and set off on the long hike to the Cold Lairs. Bagheera led the way. He was so physically fit that the trek was nothing to him. Kaa was close on Bagheera's heels, her long body slithering along with great, powerful concertina movements. But big, heavy Baloo tired quickly and had to sit down every few moments to get his breath back. "Hurry up, old Baloo," grumbled Bagheera without breaking his loping gallop, "if we take very much longer we might be too late." 8 "My bones are heavy and I have eaten too much honey. Now I know by the weight of my stomach that it's true," said Baloo a little sadly. "You two go ahead, don't wait for me. I'll catch up with you as soon as I can." Bagheera and Kaa managed to reach their destination and, although it was very dark, they saw that the stupid monkeys still had Mowgli, which was one good sign at least. So they put their plan into action. Bagheera would slip up to the top of the old abandoned palace to reach the terrace, where the largest group of monkeys were holding Mowgli. Kaa would take up her position on the west wall. She would use the extra height to throw herself down onto the monkeys at full speed at just the right time. As a cloud came over the moon, Kaa made her way to her chosen spot, so silently that not even a blind person with very clean ears could have heard him. Bagheera padded to his position, treading carefully among the dry leaves to make no sound. Suddenly, Bagheera threw himself furiously among the monkeys to begin the first part of the rescue. As soon as the monkeys realised they were being attacked, they threw Mowgli through the roof into a doorless room full of poisonous snakes. But the snakes did not harm Mowgli, because he quickly said the magic words that Baloo had taught him to ask for protection, "You and I are of the same blood". From his pit, Mowgli could hear Bagheera's ferocious roar and the deafening screeches of the monkeys. 9 The battle raging out there was tremendous and, just as Baloo was about to give up, floundering under a mass of monkeys who were biting and pulling his paws, Baloo finally appeared running as fast as he could to the rescue. But the most amazing part was when Kaa appeared, dancing on the earth and hypnotising the monkeys with his swaying movements. Then total silence fell and all the monkeys froze, filled with fear, moving just enough to make way for the snake. 10 When Mowgli realised what was happening, he began to shout to be let out of his prison, and Kaa broke down the walls with mightly blows of her head. This was how Mowgli was saved and reunited with the friends who had rescued him. They had risked their lives to save him. "I am so grateful to you, my friends," were the first words Mowgli could say once he was free again. "I am sorry for making you risk your lives in such a dangerous adventure. I promise that I will never ignore advice that people who really love me give me for my own good. Mowgli's friends accepted the apologies and thanks, and they all set off together, back to the hills of Seeonee. This was how Mowgli returned safe and sound to the wolves' cave, where his family was waiting for him. 11 Now you can wear the badge for the Trail-Finder Wolf Stage Paint your shirt and scarf the colours that you wear.