A short story from The Jungle Book, set in a bungalow garden in India. A young mongoose, washed out of his burrow by a flood, is taken in by an English family and quickly makes himself their guardian. In the garden he meets birds and a muskrat, and learns that two dangerous cobras live there and threaten the household. Fearless and quick, he sets himself to protect the people he has come to love. It is a fast, tense animal adventure, and its brisk pace and bold hero have made it one of Kipling's most popular tales.