After failing to tempt him to their own vices, Santa is kidnapped from the Laughing Valley by the five Daemons of the Caves (Daemons of Selfishness, Envy, Hatred, Malice, and Repentance) on Christmas Eve.
There she sits, a trifle loppy and loose-jointed, looking me squarely in the face in a straightforward, honest manner, a twinkle where her shoe-button eyes reflect the electric light.
The tales in the book (and also those in The Second Jungle Book which followed in 1895, and which includes five further stories about Mowgli) are fables, using animals in an anthropomorphic manner to give moral lessons.
'Clara Dillingham Pierson's Complete Among the People Series' features 99 charming tales about the everyday life of the forest, farmyard, meadow, pond and night creatures.
The Cleverest Everest is an imaginative and fun series of whimsical stories in which a father returns home from a long time away to his children, who are in bed at night to hear his fantastical tales of the places he has been, all around the world, to find the Cleverest Everest person around.
These tales of the man-cub, Mowgli, and fables of the clever creatures of the wild, like the mongoose Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, still brim with the adventure, camaraderie, and beloved characters that have endeared them to readers for more than 125 years.