the mongoose family is Run and find out, and Rikki-tikki was a true
mongoose. He looked at the cotton wool, decided that it was not good to
eat, ran all round the table, sat up and put his fur in order, scratched
himself, and jumped on the small boy s shoulder.
Don t be frightened, Teddy, said his father. That s his way of making
friends.
Ouch! He s tickling under my chin, said Teddy.
Rikki-tikki looked down between the boy s collar and neck, snuffed at
his ear, and climbed down to the floor, where he sat rubbing his nose.
Good gracious, said Teddy s mother, and that s a wild creature! I
suppose he s so tame because we ve been kind to him.
All mongooses are like that, said her husband. If Teddy doesn t pick
him up by the tail, or try to put him in a cage, he ll run in and out of
the house all day long. Let s give him something to eat.
They gave him a little piece of raw meat. Rikki-tikki liked it
immensely, and when it was finished he went out into the veranda and sat
in the sunshine and fluffed up his fur to make it dry to the roots. Then
he felt better.
There are more things to find out about in this house, he said to
himself, than all my family could find out in all their lives. I shall
certainly stay and find out.
He spent all that day roaming over the house. He nearly drowned himself
in the bath-tubs, put his nose into the ink on a writing table, and
burned it on the end of the big man s cigar, for he climbed up in the
big man s lap to see how writing was done. At nightfall he ran into
Teddy s nursery to watch how kerosene lamps were lighted, and when Teddy
went to bed Rikki-tikki climbed up too. But he was a restless companion,
because he had to get up and attend to every noise all through the
night, and find out what made it. Teddy s mother and father came in,
the last thing, to look at their boy, and Rikki-tikki was awake on
the pillow. I don t like that, said Teddy s mother. He may bite the
child. He ll do no such thing, said the father. Teddy s safer with
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