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Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936

"From Mine Own People"

"
"Then, won't you let me send an essay on The Ways of Bank Clerks to Tit-Bits,
and get the guinea prize?"
"That wasn't exactly what I meant, old fellow: perhaps it would be better to
wait a little and go ahead with the galley-story."
"Ah, but I sha'n't get the credit of that. Tit-Bits would publish my name and
address if I win. What are you grinning at? They would."
"I know it. Suppose you go for a walk. I want to look through my notes about
our story."
Now this reprehensible youth who left me, a little hurt and put back, might
for aught he or I knew have been one of the crew of the Argo--had been
certainly slave or comrade to Thorfin Karlsefne. Therefore he was deeply
interested in guinea competitions. Remembering what Grish Chunder had said I
laughed aloud. The Lords of Life and Death would never allow Charlie Mears to
speak with full knowledge of his pasts, and I must even piece out what he had
told me with my own poor inventions while Charlie wrote of the ways of bank-
clerks.
I got together and placed on one file all my notes; and the net result was not
cheering. I read them a second time. There was nothing that might not have
been compiled at second-hand from other people's books--except, perhaps, the
story of the fight in the harbor.


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