[Pg 75]

“Here,” I meow’d.

“Then listen, the pair of you. Jack writes: ‘Dear Minkie—I send the mongoose. He is very tame, quite a lovable little chap. You can let him run about the house at once if all the doors are closed. After a day or two he can go out into the garden safely, as he will always come back to his box if you leave it open. He is accustomed to my dogs, and there are terriers among them, so make Dan understand that the mongoose wants to play with him when he stands up as if he were going to box with his fore-paws. You may have more trouble with Tib, but she will soon learn to treat him as one of the family. For that matter, Rikki (that is his name) can keep either of them in order if he is not taken by surprise by reason of his friendliness with all my live stock. He will eat most things they eat. When the frost goes, and he can hunt in the garden, he will keep himself. Yours, Jack.’ So there! Just try and behave decently when I introduce Rikki.”

Dan’s growls died away in a sort of groan.

“I’ll have that buck nigger stroking me and [Pg 76]saying ‘Good dog’ next,” he muttered bitterly. And then it was all I could do to keep from smiling when I saw Minkie open the cage and take the mongoose out, gripping Dan tightly lest his feelings should overcome him. Will you believe it, that queer-looking beast seemed quite pleased to see Dan! It jumped up and licked his whiskers, and tickled his ears with its little hands, while all poor Dan could say was “Gnar-r!” and roll his eyes wildly to see what it was doing, Minkie’s fingers being like bits of steel. At last, grief and curiosity conquered him. He sniffed it, and Minkie let go. The parrot, from the dining-room, guessed what was happening, and shouted “Hark to him, Boxer! Back to him, Bendigo! At him, boy! At him!” But it was no use. May I never have another night out if Dan and Rikki were not having a friendly wrestle on the hearth-rug in half a minute.

[Pg 76]

The mongoose had quick eyes. When it rolled over in the game it saw me. I must say it had some sense, too; it seemed to know that I was not given to any dog-foolery, and it squared itself for battle. Dan, thinking to [Pg 77]show off, charged full tilt for my chair, so I determined to take a rise out of him. I began to purr, walked straight up to him, with my tail well aloft and the tip twiddling, and began to rub myself against his ribs.

[Pg 77]

You never saw a 

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