the birds, recovering nicely

The cubs scampered down the hill to Virupaksha cave in the morning to see Bhagavan and check on the two birds. Spotty insisted on bringing a tennis tennis racket that had mysteriously appeared near him when he was asleep. "I will hide it behind a rock before we get to the cave in case the birds are there and get scared by the racket," he explained to his cub brothers. (Whenever the racket was in Spotty's paw, he could not resist practicing very bold shots with it.)



As they approached the cave, Hobbler came up to meet them, the little bird on his shoulder.



"The bird looks so much better!" said Arunacub with joy.

"Oh yes," said Hobbler. "And she says I am her best friend because I brought her to Bhagavan." The bird pecked at Hobbler's ear in a very friendly way that made Hobbler laugh.

When they all reached Bhagavan, they found the crow feasting again on an iddli, looking glossy and happy. The little bird jumped down and began eating too. Hobbler stood nearby, looking very hungry but refusing to eat until Bhagavan fed him with his divine hands.



Soon both birds flew high up above some trees and the cubs beamed at Bhagavan for having nursed them back to health. He smiled at them and began popping bits of iddli into their mouths too. Rationalizing that they were doing Bhagavan a favour by keeping him clean, they licked his beautiful hands, and then they rested their heads on his feet. His peace poured into them and they lay very still, completely happy.

When Bhagavan got up for his lunch, they purred their goodbyes and ran off to find Spotty's racket.

"Are you not worried someone might have "borrowed" your lovely new racket?" asked a squirrel who had seen Spotty hide it behind the rock.

"Worry?" said Spotty. "How can I worry when Bhagavan is here?"

When they got to the rock where Spotty had left it, they found two baffled hippos. Upon seeing the cubs, the hippos' expressions changed from puzzlement to pride at being able to inform the cubs of something strange.

"You won't be able to pick up that racket," said Crumple.

"Oh?" said Tirucub, trying to keep a straight face.

"Why?" asked Omcub.

"It weighs more than our mother!" said Rumple. "We were going to take the racket to play mudball with it, but the two of us together could not budge it."

Spotty went right up to his racket.

"You, least of all!" Crumple told Spotty.

"Spotty may look little, but he could easily pick up your mother if he wanted to," said Arunacub.

Crumple and Rumple laughed, thinking of times they had tried to make their mother do things. If she sat down, there was no budging her! Imagine the tiny Spotty having any success! Crumple and Rumple worked themselves up into such hysterics that they were soon rolling on the ground.

"Watch," said Tirucub.

Spotty reached down a little paw and gracefully picked up his racket without the slightest strain. Crumple and Rumple's jaws dropped.

Serving imaginary balls all the way, Spotty led the other cubs home so they could get started on making Uncle Annamalai's lunch.