Some more questions from 'The Jungle Book'

[Haihao]

Hi,

Could you please help me out with:

Little Toomai stared again and again. The clearing, as he remembered it, had grown in the night. More trees stood in the middle of it, but the undergrowth and the jungle grass at the sides had been rolled back.

1. Does ‘grow’ in had grown in the night mean ‘become bigger’?
2. Why ‘More trees stood in the middle of it’ NOW? Is it because Little Toomai couldn’t have noticed them in the dark night?

But, since native children have no nerves worth speaking of, in two hours he was lying very contentedly in Petersen Sahib’s hammock…

3. Does the ‘nerves’ refer to ‘courage’? If so, why? What is the relationship between courage and other things described here?

Machua Appa had no need to look twice at the clearing to see what had been done there, or to scratch with his toe in the packed, rammed earth.

4. Could this sentence be paraphrased as: Machua Appa believed at once what had been done there needing neither to look twice at the clearing nor to scratch with his toe in the packed, rammed earth.?

And at last, when the flames died down, and the red light of the logs made the elephants look as though they had been dipped in blood too, Machua Appa, the head of all the drivers of all the Keddahs—Machua Appa, Petersen Sahib’s other self, who had never seen a made road in forty years: Machua Appa, who was so great that he had no other name than Machua Appa,

5. Does ‘red light of the logs’ suggest they were still blazing even though the flames had died down?
6. Does ‘a made road’ mean a man-made road? If so, why?

Many thanks in advance.

Haihao

[Mister_Micawber]

.

1. Does ‘grow’ in had grown in the night mean ‘become bigger’? – Yes, larger in circumference.

2. Why ‘More trees stood in the middle of it’ NOW? Is it because Little Toomai couldn’t have noticed them in the dark night? – I suppose so (actually, I have forgotten ‘Toomai of the Elephants’).

3. Does the ‘nerves’ refer to ‘courage’? If so, why? What is the relationship between courage and other things described here? – Simply, children are brash, candid and straightforward. It’s not courage; it’s lack of self-consciousness or hesitation. I don’t know what else may apply here.
   

4. Could this sentence be paraphrased as: Machua Appa believed at once what had been done there needing neither to look twice at the clearing nor to scratch with his toe in the packed, rammed earth.? – Yes

5. Does ‘red light of the logs’ suggest they were still blazing even though the flames had died down? – Not blazing; glowing.

6. Does ‘a made road’ mean a man-made road? If so, why? - Yes. ‘Why’ what?-- what don’t you understand?
   .