Page 100 - Lavender-B-7

So he sang a very mournful song that he When Rikki got to the house, Teddy and
made up on the spur of the minute, and just Teddy’s mother and Teddy's father came out
as he got to the most touching part, the grass and almost cried over him; and that night he
quivered again, and Rikki-tikki, covered with ate all that was given him till he could eat no
dirt, dragged himself out of the hole leg by more, and went to bed on Teddy’s shoulder,
leg, licking his whiskers. Darzee stopped with where Teddy’s mother saw him when she
a little shout. Rikki-tikki shook some of the came to look late at night.
dust out of his fur and sneezed.

He saved
our lives and
Teddy's life.
Just think,
he saved all
our lives.

It is all over.
The widow
will never
come out
again.
Rikki-tikki had a right to be proud of himself.
But he did not grow too proud, and he kept
that garden as a mongoose should keep it, with
tooth and jump and spring and bite, till never a
cobra dared show its head inside the walls.

—Adapted from Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Rikki-tikki-tavi’ from The Jungle Book

About the Author
Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) was an English journalist, short-story writer, poet and novelist. He was born in Bombay
(now Mumbai), and much of his work is inspired by India. Kipling’s works of fiction include The Jungle Book (1894), and The
Second Jungle Book (1895), Kim (1901), and many short stories, including ‘The Man Who Would Be King’ (1888). His poems
include ‘Mandalay’ (1890), ‘Gunga Din’ (1890), ‘The Gods of the Copybook Headings’ (1919), ‘The White Man’s Burden’ (1899),
and ‘If—’.
He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907.

Time to answer

A. Choose the correct option.

1. What is the setting of the story?

pre independent India post independent India

18 century India Great Britain
th
100