p, great big
Mugger."

"What will you give me, if I don't eat you up?" said the Mugger. But
Little Black Mingo was so poor she had nothing to give. So the Mugger
caught her in his great cruel mouth and swam away with her to an island
in the middle of the river and set her down beside a huge pile of eggs.

"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.

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.

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.

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.

"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!!

Then he said to himself, "I must stay beside my eggs