TMS Rikki-tikki-tavi Vocab

This is the story of the great war that Rikki-tikki-tavi fought single-handed, though the bath-rooms of the big bungalow in Segowlee cantonment.

One day, a high summer flood washed him out of the burrow where he lived with his father and mother, and carried him, kicking and clucking, down a roadside ditch.

Still, the instant's delay brought Rikki-tikki up to her, and as she plunged into the rat-hole where she and Nag used to live, his little white teeth were clenched on her tail, and he went down with her-- and very few mongooses, however wise and old they may be, care to follow a cobra into its hole.

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.

It may be some consolation to you when you're dead to know that I shall settle accounts with the boy.

Darzee and his wife only cowered down in the nest without answering, for from the thick grass at the foot of the bush there came a low hiss--- a horrid cold sound that made Rikki-tikki jump back two clear feet.

But just as Teddy was stooping, something flinched a little in the dust, and a tiny voice said: "Be careful."

"Good gracious," said Teddy's mother, "and that's a wild creature!"

Rikki-tikki liked it immensely, and when it was finished, he went out onto the verandah and sat in the sunshine and fluffed up his fur to make it dry to the roots.

His father ran out with a stick, but by the time he came up, Karait had lunged out once too far, and Rikki-tikki had sprung, jumped on the snake's back, dropped his head far between his fore-legs, bitten as high up the back as he could get hold, and rolled away.

The motto of all the mongoose family is "Run and find out," and Rikki-tikki was a true mongoose.

So he sang a very mournful song that he made up on the spur of the minute, and just as he got to the most touching part, the grass quivered again and Rikki-tikki, covered with dirt, dragged himself out of the hole leg by leg, licking his whiskers.

So he sang a very mournful song that he made up on the spur of the minute, and just as he got to the most touching part, the grass quivered again and Rikki-tikki, covered with dirt, dragged himself out of the hole leg by leg, licking his whiskers.

When he revived, he was lying in the hot sun, on the middle of a garden path, very draggled indeed, and a small boy was saying: "Here's a dead mongoose."

The news of Nag's death was all over the garden, for the sweeper had thrown the body on the rubbish-heap.

Then Rikki-tikki danced in a circle to get behind her, and Nagaina spun round to keep her head to his head, so that the rustle of her tail on the matting sounded like dry leaves blown along by the wind.

She had crept up behind him as he was talking, to make an end of him; and he heard her savage hiss as the stroke missed.

He spread out his hood more than ever, and Rikki-tikki saw the spectacle-mark on the back of it that looks exactly like the eye part of a hook-and-eye fastening.

"This is a splendid hunting-ground," he said, and his tail grew bottle-brushy at the thought of it, and he scuttled up and down the garden, snuffing here and there till he heard very sorrowful voices in the throne-bush.

Without waiting for breakfast, Rikki-tikki ran to the thorn-bush where Darzee was singing a song of triumph at the top of his voice.