Shere Khan Gets a Bath

Downstairs, the pot in the fireplace was boiling rapidly. Minnie immediately got up, changed back into her blue dress, matching bow, and slippers and ran downstairs to it. She removed the lid from the pot, stirred it up, and tasted it.

Meanwhile the seven jungle cubs were peeking from the top of the banister where Kaa had stuck his head into a hole in it. They sniffed the air, breathed in deeply, sighed, and shouted, "Ahhhhh! Soup! Hurray!" Louie, Shere Khan, Baloo, Mungo, Bagheera, and Hathi, who were not stupid enough to stick their heads through the banister, ran to the table, each one stepping on Kaa's back. They were arguing over the food, each one wanting to be the first. "Wait for me! I'm coming too!" Kaa tried to follow them, but his head was in the banister. "Ugh! I can't--I mean--" After several bumps, his head finally popped through, and he flew backwards into the wall. "Here I come!" Aching from the pain, he slithered down the stairs, only to end up tumbling. He got up and quickly slithered to the table and into his chair, but his chair fell backwards, and he went rolling out of it. He stood up in his chair and sat down to join the argument. Soon, all seven jungle cubs were fighting over bread rolls and knocking Kaa out of his chair again. "Hey!" They were just about to bite into them when Minnie stopped them.

"Ah, ah, ah! Just a minute!" Minnie called to them. The jungle cubs stopped fighting and turned their heads to listen.

"Supper's not quite ready yet," said Minnie. "You'll just have time to wash."

"Wash?" Louie, Baloo, Mungo, Bagheera, Hathi, and Kaa questioned in wonder.

"Ha! I knew there was a catch to it!" Shere Khan grumbled, throwing down his spoon and crossing his arms in defiance.

"Why wash?" asked Bagheera.

"What for?" asked Baloo.

"We're not going anywhere, are we?" asked Kaa.

"It's not the New Year." said Louie, as Bagheera, Baloo, Hathi, and Kaa shook their heads.

"Oh, perhaps you have washed." Minnie smiled.

Louie pondered for a moment. "Perhaps we..." Then he remembered what Minnie meant. "Yes, perhaps we have!"

"But when?" asked Minnie, crossly putting her hands on her hips.

Louie kept waffling about when he and the other jungle cubs had already washed. "When? When? You said... Ah, last week, month, ye..., why, recently!" he finally said.

"Yes, recently!" said Baloo, Mungo, Bagheera, Hathi, and Kaa.

"Oh, really?" said Minnie. "Let me see your hands."

Louie, Baloo, Mungo, Bagheera, and Hathiplaced their hands promptly behind their backs backed up a bit. But Kaa only kept his tail on the floor, and Shere Khan his arms defiantly.

"Let me see your hands!" demanded Minnie.

Finally, Louie held out his filthy hands.

"Why, Louie! I'm surprised!" exclaimed a shocked Minnie. Louie giggled bashfully and his hands once again.

Minnie looked at Bagheera. "Come on. Let's see them." Bagheera held out his paws as well. "Oh, Bagheera, my, my, my..." The panther cub blushed and hid his paws again.

Then she looked at Hathi. "And you?" Hathi held out his hooves, and Minnie tsked at the sight.

Baloo rubbed his hands on his legs and held them out for Minnie to inspect. "Worse than I thought." Minnie said sadly.

Kaa held out his filthy tail. "Oops!" he said, as Minnie laughed, making him drop his tail.

Finally, Mungo held out his paws. Minnie gasped at the sight of his filthy paws. "Oh! How shockin'!" Mungo quickly hid his paws.

"Goodness me! This won't do at all!" said Minnie.

Shere Khan looked at his paw and angrily shoved it back down.

"March straight outside and wash or you're not gonna get a bite to eat!" Minnie ordered the jungle cubs.

Sadly, the jungle cubs, other than Shere Khan, looked at Louie, who nodded and led them outside the open door, whose doorknob was remarkably fixed!

Naturally, Kaa was not looking where he was going and slithered straight into the wall on the wrong side of the door, which is actually the closet for storing pots and pans. He slithered out and around the door to the outside. "Sorry about that!" he called.

"Humph!" said Shere Khan, as he glared at the wall again.

"Well, aren't you going to wash?" Minnie asked the tiger cub.

Shere Khan ignored her.

"What's the matter?" asked Minnie, "Cat got your tongue?"

Shere Khan only turned to face Minnie and stuck his tongue out at her. Then he stomped outside, only to bump into a wall. making her laugh.

"Awwww, did you hurt yourself?" Minnie asked empathically.

"Humph!" Shere Khan pouted. And with that, he marched straight outside, slamming the door behind him. He sat on a barrel, grabbed a slice of buckwheat cake, and stuck it in his mouth. "Humph! Girls!"

"Courage, boys, courage," Louie told his friends. "Don't be nervous."

Shere Khan watched his friends approach an empty horse trough. They peered at the water nervously. Baloo stuck a clawed finger in the water and swirled it around. "Gosh!" he said, "It's wet!"

Hathi stuck his trunk in it, too. He quickly pulled it out, shivering. "Brrrrr!" he complained, "it's cold too!"

"We're not gonna do it, are we?" Bagheera asked nervously.

"Well," said Louie. "It would please the princess."

"I'll take a chance on her!" Baloo spoke up.

"Me too!" Mungo, Bagheera, Hathi, and Kaa said in unison.

"Humph," Shere Khan said from on top of the barrel. "Her wiles are beginning to work! But I'm warning you, you give them an inch, they'll walk all over you!"

"Don't listen to that old warthog!" Louie said indignantly. Then he turned to face Baloo, Mungo, Bagheera, Hathi, and Kaa. "Come one now, boys!"

"How hard can you scrub?" Hathi asked.

"Will my fur shrink?" Mungo asked.

"Do you get in the tub?" Baloo asked.

"Do you have to wash where it doesn't show?" Bagheera asked.

"Now, don't get excited," Louie told them. "Here we go!" Then he began to sing.

Louie: Step up to the tub Oh! T'ain't no disgrace Just pull up your sleeves And pin them in place Then, scoop up the water And rub it on your face And go, "Brrr! Brrr! Brrr!"

Baloo, Mungo, Bagheera, Hathi, and Kaa picked up five separate bars of soap and began working up a lather on their paws, hooves, trunk, tail, and faces.

Louie: Pick up the soap Now, don't try to bluff Work up a lather And when you got enough Get your hands full of water And you snort And you snuff And go, "Brrr! Brrr! Brrr!"

In the meantime, the fly that bothered Mungo returned by buzzing around Mungo's head. Then it landed on the soap and started scrubbing.

Louie: You douse and souse You rub and scrub You sputter and splash All over the tub You may be cold and wet When you're done But you gotta admit It's good and clean fun So splash all you like T'ain't any trick As soon as you're through You'll feel mighty slick

Shere Kahn: Bunch of old nanny goats You make me sick Going, "Brrr! Brrr! Brrr!"

Shere Khan then spat at them.

Louie then took a scrubbing floor brush and scrubbed Baloo's, Mungo's, Bagheera's, and Hathi's heads. He tried to scrub Kaa's head, but he ducked several times, avoiding the brush. Louie got mad at knocked Kaa into the trough with it.

"Brrr! Brrr! Brrr!" he shouted underwater, kicking his tail frantically, as Louie instead brushed his back with the brush.

Meanwhile, Shere Khan was still making fun of his friends. "Ha! Next thing you know, she'll be tying your fur up in pink ribbons and smelling you up with that stuff called perfume!" Then he spat out the chewed part of the buckwheat cake.

Meanwhile, the jungle cubs went back to washing. Baloo shook like a dog to dry his fur and soaked Louie.

Kaa hit himself in the head to get the water out of his invisible ears. Then, he shook his head, only to cause the water to slosh around. Finally, he stuck his tail in his mouth and blew hard, making the water comes shooting out of his ears.

Hathi couldn't see, so, he grabs the first thing he touched to dry his face off with. It happened to be Mungo's tail. Bagheera couldn't see either and grabbed Mungo's front paws to dry off his face. This caused Mungo to be lifted lift up off the ground. When Bagheera and Hathi were done, they dropped the mongoose painfully on the ground.

"A fine bunch of waterlilies you turned out to be!" Shere Khan said, still sitting on top of the barrel. Louie glared at him. "I'd like to see anybody make me wash, if I didn't wanna!"

"Hey!" snapped Louie. But then he calmed down a bit, cleared his throat, and motioned his friends to come. They were all gathered in a football-esque huddle. Louie whispered and pointed to Shere Khan, who didn't seem to notice. Baloo looked up and slightly laughed. Kaa looked up, smiling at Shere Khan, but Hathi reached up, grabbed his head, and dragged him back into the huddle.

Whistling, Louie, Baloo, Mungo, Bagheera, Kaa, and Hathi made their way to the barrel to surround Shere Khan, who noticed that it was late.

"Get him!" Louie cried.

Shere Khan tried to run away, but the others quickly grabbed onto his four legs. Now he was kicking and screaming while the other jungle cubs carried him to the trough. "Hey! Let go of me!" shouted the tiger cub.

"Get him over to the tub!" cried Louie, "Get him over to the tub!"

"Let me loose, you fools! Let me loose!" shouted Shere Khan.

"Get him up on the tub!" Louie continued crying, "Get him up! Hang onto him! Get him up on the tub! The tub, the tub! Don't get excited! Don't get--"

They managed to get him in, and, in the process, Kaa fell off of Hathi and rolled over with Louie. He landed with his coils around a dazed Louie's neck and looked up at him lovingly.

Louie pushed the snake off of him. "Get the soap!" he commanded, as Kaa nodded at Louie while going to get the soap. But he tripped, got up, and quickly slithered past the soap. He stopped, went back, and got it, but it slipped out of his tail ten times.

"Oh! Steady, boys!" Louie said to those who were holding the tortured tiger cub in the water.

The soap landed on Kaa's head and bounced off. He snuck up on it and pounced on it. That only caused it to slip out of his tail, bounce off of Mungo's rear end, and go down Kaa's throat, nearly choking him, but it went straight down. "Did we have to use real soap?" he asked, feeling sick. Luckily, Kaa pretended not to notice the fact that he just swallowed an entire bar of soap and looked around for the missing soap. He couldn't find it of course. He hiccupped, and bubbles came out of his mouth. He kept looking around until he kept hiccupping bubbles again. He pat his stomach and felt the bar of soap. He kept hiccupping bubbles, feeling sicker and sicker.

During all of this, Louie, Baloo, Mungo, Bagheera, and Hathi were scrubbing Shere Khan's face and laughing. Hathi washed his fur while Mungo and Bagheera held him down. Baloo scrubbed his forehead while Louie his teeth. Louie began singing again, and the other jungle cubs joined in.

Louie: Now scrub good and hard It can't be denied But he'll look mighty cute As soon as he's dried

Louie, Baloo, Mungo, Bagheera, and Hathi: Well, it's good for the soul And it's good for the hide To go--

Shere Khan: "Brrr! Brrr! Brrr!"

Kaa was still hiccupping bubbles. He tried holding them in until he hiccupped so hard, sending his skyrocketing in the air. He hiccupped one last time, causing the last bubble to come out of his mouth and pop. "Whew!" sighed the snake, "I feel much better already."

By this time, Louie, Baloo, Mungo, Bagheera, and Hathi were tying blue ribbons in Shere Khan's fur. "Ain't he sweet?" Louie smiled.

Hathi sniffed the tiger cub. "Smells like a petunia." he said.

Baloo placed a wreath of flowers on Shere Khan's head. "He sure is cute." he said.

"You'll pay dearly for this!" Shere Khan snarled.

"Supper!" Minnie called to the jungle cubs, banging the spoon against the cauldron.

"Supper!" Louie exclaimed happily.

"Food! Hurray!" Baloo, Mungo, Bagheera, Hathi, and Kaa cheered, as the ran back inside, dropping Shere Khan into the trough.

"Brrr! Brrr! Brrr!" Shere Khan screamed underwater. When he popped his head up out of the water, he sat up and pouted. "Humph!"