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“Those are my eggs,” said he; “to-morrow a little mugger will come out of each, and then we will have a great feast, and we will eat you up.”

Then he waddled off to catch fish for himself, and left Little Black
Mingo alone beside the big pile of eggs.

And Little Black Mingo sat down on a big stone and hid her face in her hands, and cried bitterly, because she couldn’t swim, and she didn’t know how to get away.

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Presently she heard a queer little squeaky noise that sounded like “Squeak, Squeak, Squeak!!!  Oh Little Black Mingo, help me or I shall be drowned.”  She got up and looked to see what was calling, and she saw a bush coming floating down the river with something wriggling and scrambling about in it, and as it came near she saw that it was a Mongoose that was in the bush.  So she waded out as far as she could, and caught hold of the bush and pulled it in, and the poor Mongoose crawled up her arm on to her shoulder, and she carried him to shore.

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When they got to shore the Mongoose shook himself, and Little Black
Mingo wrung out her petticoat, and so they both very soon got dry.

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The Mongoose then began to poke about for something to eat, and very soon he found the great big pile of Mugger’s eggs.  “Oh, joy!” said he, “what’s this?”

“Those are Mugger’s eggs,” said Little Black Mingo.

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“I’m not afraid of Muggers!” said the Mongoose; and he sat down and began to crack the eggs, and eat the little muggers as they came out.  And he threw the shells into the water, so that the old Mugger should not see that any one had been eating them.  But he was careless, and he left one eggshell on the edge, and he was hungry and he ate so many that the pile got much smaller, and when the old Mugger came back he saw at once that some one had been meddling with them.

So he ran to Little Black Mingo, and said, “How dare you eat my eggs?”

“Indeed, indeed I didn’t,” said Little Black Mingo.

“Then who could it have been?” said the Mugger, and he ran back to the eggs as fast as he could, and sure enough when he got back he found the Mongoose had eaten a whole lot more!!

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Then he said to himself, “I must stay beside my eggs till they are hatched into little muggers, or the Mongoose will eat them all.”  So he curled himself into a ring round the eggs and went to sleep.

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But while he was asleep the Mongoose came to eat some more of the eggs, and ate as many as he wanted, and when the Mugger woke this time, oh! what a rage he was in, for there were only six eggs left!  He roared so loud that all the little muggers inside the shells gnashed their teeth, and tried to roar too.

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Then he said, “I know what I’ll do, I’ll fetch Little Black Mingo’s big chatty and cover my eggs with that, then the Mongoose won’t be able to get at them.”  So he swam across to the shore, and fetched the dhobi’s big chatty, and covered the eggs with it.  “Now, you wicked little Mongoose, come and eat my eggs if you can,” said he, and he went off quite proud and happy.