Rikki-Tikki-Tavi

One summer, during the rainy season in India, heavy rain flooded the burrow where a young mongoose lived and swept him away along a ditch beside the road. A small boy named Teddy found him half-drowned on the garden path, and Teddy's mother dried him in a towel. They named him Rikki-tikki-tavi, and he decided to stay.

The bungalow had a large, half-wild garden full of bamboo and thick, wet grass where almost anything could hide. On his first morning, Rikki-tikki was exploring it when he heard Darzee, the tailorbird, crying on the edge of his nest. A snake had eaten one of his babies the night before.

Just then, a huge black cobra rose out of the grass and spread his hood. "I'm Nag," he hissed. "Everything in this garden is afraid of me." Rikki-tikki had never faced a cobra before, but something deep inside him already knew what to do: mongooses are born to fight snakes. While Nag was talking, Darzee shouted, "Behind you!" Rikki-tikki jumped high into the air, and Nagaina, Nag's wicked wife, struck the ground where he had been standing.

That night, Rikki-tikki heard the snakes making a plan near the bathroom drain. If the people died, the mongoose would leave, and the garden would belong to the snakes again. Nagaina's eggs were hidden in the melon bed, and they would hatch any day. Nag slid into the bathroom and coiled himself around the big water jar to wait for Teddy's father. Rikki-tikki jumped, closed his teeth on the back of Nag's head and held on while the cobra whipped him against the floor. The noise woke Teddy's father, who ran in with his gun and shot Nag dead.

In the morning, while Darzee's wife pretended to have a broken wing and led Nagaina away from the melon bed, Rikki-tikki smashed every egg but one. At breakfast on the veranda, Nagaina was coiled beside Teddy's bare leg, ready to strike. "Look what I've got," Rikki-tikki called, rolling the last egg toward her. Nagaina spun around, and Teddy's father pulled the boy to safety.

Nagaina caught the egg in her mouth and raced to her hole, and Rikki-tikki ran after her into the dark. The grass stopped moving. Darzee began a sad song, sure that the brave little mongoose was dead. At last, Rikki-tikki crawled out, covered in dirt. "It's finished," he said. "She won't bother anyone ever again."

Then Darzee flew to the top of the tallest bamboo and sang the news to the whole garden. Nag was dead, Nagaina was dead, and nobody had to be afraid anymore.