MRS. MAGGIE MONGOOSE

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 88, 13 April 1935, Page 24

MRS. MAGGIE MONGOOSE

ASDA

MAGGIE, the mongoose with the little bright round eyes, looked all about her, up the long verandah and down it; then she ran gently to one of the open doorways over which a curtain hung, and pushed her pointed face round the other side of the thin drapery, giving a glance into the room inside. . It was half darkened by closed shutters which did their very best to keep out the extreme heat of the Indian day. A bed with a white canopy over it, on which netting was folded (until evening should bring the mosquitoes), was in oiie corner, and on it someone, a human person, was trying to sleep until the «in outside should grow less cruel and less hurtful. Not far from the bed was a cot containing a tiny child who was sound asleep. The little child's mother was sewing in the garden at the back of the bungalow and later, Dicky, wham Maggie Mongoose had seen asleep in his cot ran about playing by his mother's side while she sat in a chair doing some embroidery. . ~.,,,» asleep; less dangerous; she decided to go out into the garden at the back of the bungalow. So, in his little white dress, Dicky ran about playing by his mother's side while she sat in a chair doing some embroidery. Now, if Mrs. Hamilton had not forgotten to bring out her scissors nothing exciting would have happened. She knew where they were, arid ran into the house to get them, saying to Dicky that she -would be gone just one minute; but; when she got to her work-box the scissors had disappeared. ' Mrs Hamilton searched all about the room, and at last found them at- the back of a drawer. But the search had taken some minutes, and when she got back to the garden she could not see Dicky anywhere. Then, suddenly, over by a border of brightly-coloured flowers, she saw him lie had been attracted by the lovely colours and had run to them, but when he had got to the border he had found another toy, a more interesting one to him because it moved and was alive. Mrs.- Hamilton went towards him, and when she was within a few feet she stopped as if she had been struck. Dicky was sittmg with his back to her on the ground ,and, to her horror, she found the toy he was attempting to play with was nothing less than an enormous black, shining cobra! As she looked the creature was slowly uncoiling itself so that it might raise its head into a position to strike at her. tiny son. Although Mrs. Hamilton only stood on that spot for a fraction of a minute, man> thoughts had time to flash through her mind. Should she seize her baby and run away? Would that attract the snake to. state more quickly! or to give chase? Or had she time to race to the verandah ■for her husband's sword-stick?. Each course seemed destined to lead to failure, but she chose the first, which seemed instinctively the thing to do She went close to the terrible creature and bent to take her child in her arms The Fnake was ready to strike: she could see the loathsome body nuiverinfe as he spread his hood and threw back his head. ■ _ And then suddenly the most wonderful thing happened A little pointed face was peeping out just by her hands from behind a shrub, and at the same moment, with a savage growl, Maggie,, the^ gentle little mongoose whom she had fed like a tame rabbit on theverandahvevery morning, flung SsSf at the coca's head. The cobra, realising that here was a danger and a real enemy in another quarter, altered his scheme of attack, and, turning swiftly from the child who had been trying to play a game with him, struck furiously at the threatening mongoose. . Mrs. Hamilton, who had now snatched Dicky Win her arms and was crying with joy and relief over him, stood at a distance and watched the batAnJ whTa'fghMt'was! Each time the cobra struck the brave little her onthe ground* and, to her horror, she found the toy he was attempting mongoose sprang cleverly out of reach; each time, also, "tom"" herself sprang growling at the cobra's head and fixed her small sharp teeth into hint until he was wounded, and, realising he was being defeated, limply unfolded his coils and began to slink away. But Maggie was after her retreating foe, and it was a very sad cObra who finally escaped through the garden border. . ~