The Kipling Reader

The Kipling Reader, by Rudyard
Kipling

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Kipling This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and
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Title: The Kipling Reader Selections from the Books of Rudyard
Kipling
Author: Rudyard Kipling
Release Date: August 21, 2005 [EBook #16578]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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KIPLING READER ***

Produced by Roy Brown

THE KIPLING READER
SELECTIONS FROM THE BOOKS OF RUDYARD KIPLING

NEW AND REVISED EDITION
MACMILLAN AND CO, LIMITED ST. MARTIN'S STREET,
LONDON 1923

COPYRIGHT
First Edition 1900. Reprinted with corrections 1901. Reprinted 1907,
1908, 1910, 1912, 1914, 1916, 1918 (twice), 1919 (twice), 1920, 1921,
1923.
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

CONTENTS
PROSE
'RIKKI-TIKKI-TAVI'
WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR
PART I
WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR
PART II WEE WILLIE WINKIE

A MATTER OF FACT
MOWGLI'S BROTHERS
THE LOST
LEGION
NAMGAY DOOLA
A GERM-DESTROYER
'TIGER!
TIGER!'
TODS' AMENDMENT
THE STORY OF MUHAMMAD
DIN
THE FINANCES OF THE GODS
MOTI GUJ--MUTINEER
POETRY
THE NATIVE BORN
THE FLOWERS MUNICIPAL
THE
COASTWISE LIGHTS
THE ENGLISH FLAG
ENGLAND'S
ANSWER
THE OVERLAND MAIL
IN SPRING TIME

'RIKKI-TIKKI-TAVI'
At the hole where he went in Red-Eye called to Wrinkle-Skin. Hear

what little Red-Eye saith: 'Nag, come up and dance with death!'
Eye to eye and head to head, (Keep the measure, Nag.) This shall end
when one is dead; (At thy pleasure, Nag.) Turn for turn and twist for
twist-- (Run and hide thee, Nag.) Hah! The hooded Death has missed!
(Woe betide thee, Nag!)
This is the story of the great war that Kikki-tikki-tavi fought
single-handed, through the bath-rooms of the big bungalow in
Segowlee cantonment. Darzee, the tailor-bird, helped him, and
Chuchundra, the musk-rat, who never comes out into the middle of the
floor, but always creeps round by the wall, gave him advice; but
Rikki-tikki did the real fighting.
He was a mongoose, rather like a little cat in his fur and his tail, but
quite like a weasel in his head and habits. His eyes and the end of his
restless nose were pink; he could scratch himself anywhere he pleased,
with any leg, front or back, that he chose to use; he could fluff up his
tail till it looked like a bottle-brush, and his war-cry, as he scuttled
through the long grass, was: 'Rikk-tikk-tikki-tikki-tchk!'
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. He found a little wisp of grass floating there,
and clung to it till he lost his senses. 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. Let's have a funeral.'
'No,' said his mother; 'let's take him in and dry him. Perhaps he isn't
really dead.'
They took him into the house, and a big man picked him up between
his finger and thumb, and said he was not dead but half choked; so they
wrapped him in cotton-wool, and warmed him and he opened his eyes
and sneezed.
'Now,' said the big man (he was an Englishman who had just moved
into the bungalow); 'don't frighten him and we'll see what he'll do.'

It is the hardest thing in the world to frighten a mongoose, because he
is eaten up from nose to tail with curiosity. The motto of all 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 verandah and sat in the
sunshine and fluffed up his fur to make it dry to the roots. Then he