. The jungle book. ! We must sing his death-song. Valiant Rikki-tikki is dead! For Nag-aina will surely kill him underground. So he sang a very mournful song that hemade up all on the spur of the minute, and justas he got to the most touching part the grassquivered again, and Rikki-tikki, covered withdirt, dragged himself out of the hole leg by leg,licking his whiskers. Darzee stopped with alittle shout. Rikki-tikki shook some of the dustout of his fur and sneezed. It is all over, hesaid. The widow will never come out the red ants that live between the grassstems heard him, and began
. The jungle book. ! We must sing his death-song. Valiant Rikki-tikki is dead! For Nag-aina will surely kill him underground. So he sang a very mournful song that hemade up all on the spur of the minute, and justas he got to the most touching part the grassquivered again, and Rikki-tikki, covered withdirt, dragged himself out of the hole leg by leg,licking his whiskers. Darzee stopped with alittle shout. Rikki-tikki shook some of the dustout of his fur and sneezed. It is all over, hesaid. The widow will never come out the red ants that live between the grassstems heard him, and began to troop down oneafter another to see if he had spoken the truth. Rikki-tikki curled himself up in the grass andslept where he was—slept and slept till it waslate in the afternoon, for he had done a harddays work. 2IO THE JUNGLE BOOK Now, he said, when he awoke, I will goback to the house. Tell the Coppersmith, Dar-zee, and he will tell the garden that Nagaina isdead. The Coppersmith is a bird who makes a noise. ™!>igz IT IS ALL OVER. ixactly like the beating of a little hammer on acopper pot; and the reason he is always makingit is because he is the town-crier to every Indiangarden, and tells all the news to everybody who RIKKI-TIKKI-TAVI 211 cares to listen. As Rikki-tikki went up the path,he heard his attention notes like a tiny dinner-gong; and then the steady Ding-dong-tock!Nag is dead—dong! Nagaina is dead ! Ding-dong-tock / That set all the birds in the gar-den singing, and the frogs croaking; for Nagand Nagaina used to eat frogs as well as littlebirds. When Rikki got to the house, Teddy andTeddys mother (she looked very white still, forshe had been fainting) and Teddys father cameout and almost cried over him ; and that night heate all that was given him till he could eat nomore, and went to bed on Teddys shoulder,where Teddys mother saw him when she cameto look late at night. He saved our lives and Teddys life, shesaid to her husband. Just think, he saved all
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Keywords: ., bookcentu, darzee, mongoose, rikkitikki, rikkitikkitavi, tailorbird
