Then this very bad elephant meets a most awful fate. He becomes a solitary wanderer in the jungle. No other elephant will have anything to do with him. He is a _rogue elephant_. "But could he not go to another part of the jungle and join some other herd of elephants who don't _know_ that he is a rogue?" you may ask. He could. But those elephants would find out _at once_ that he had been driven out of his own herd for being a rogue. _The Brand of the Rogue_ How would they find that out at once? By seeing the scars of the wounds on the place where he had been repeatedly punished. Those scars are _the brand of the rogue elephant_. So the new herd also would drive him out, for neither do they want a rogue among them. Thus, no matter what herd the rogue elephant tried to join, he would be driven out. Then he would be fated to roam the jungle by himself all his life--which is a most awful punishment. An outlaw among men has a similar fate, as he is shunned by all honest people. A rogue elephant, being the _outlaw of the jungle_, does not live long. Just as an outlaw among men gets shot by the sheriff's men sooner or later, so also a rogue elephant gets shot by hunters. For, although the hunters must not shoot an ordinary wild elephant that is a member of a herd, they may shoot at sight a rogue elephant that is roaming in solitude. So, my dear children, remember that such a terrible fate comes to a rogue elephant who may have _begun_ his downward path by just one act of disobedience or some other fault--and who obstinately persisted in his wickedness, and _would not repent_. _The Reward of Repentance_ On the other hand, how much wiser it is to repent, even if one has been so foolish as to do wrong! Mukna committed the most terrible crime--he actually tried to kill people; and then he tried to run away into the jungle and perhaps become a rogue elephant. But afterward, when he was being punished, he repented of his crimes. So, what happened? I shall tell you. Mukna was put on probation for a year; that is, the keepers watched him for a year to see if he would behave well. And for the whole year Mukna was on his best behavior; he was gentle and docile and obedient, and he did whatever he was ordered to do, even the hardest work. And he did that willingly, as if to prove that he had truly repented. Then those very princes whom he had tried to kill felt sure that Mukna had begun a new life, and would always be good in the future. So the princes took him back into favor. And today Mukna wears a cloth-of-gold, with gold rings on his tusks, and he walks in a royal procession. Sometimes he carries grand people on his back, and sometimes children. And no elephant is more gentle and thoughtful with little children than he is. For he actually curls the end of his trunk near the ground for them to sit upon--and then he lifts them up to his back, three at a time! CHAPTER V Flesh-Eating Animals: the Felines, or the Cat Tribe