Prev | Current Page 544 | Next

Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936

"From Mine Own People"

Mrs. Hauksbee came up and
said: "You take me in to supper, I think, Mr. Bremmil." Bremmil turned red and
looked foolish. "Ah--h'm! I'm going home with my wife, Mrs. Hauksbee. I think
there has been a little mistake." Being a man, he spoke as though Mrs.
Hauksbee were entirely responsible.
Mrs. Bremmil came out of the cloak-room in a swansdown cloak with a white
"cloud" round her head. She looked radiant; and she had a right to.
The couple went off in the darkness together, Bremmil riding very close to the
dandy.
Then says Mrs. Hauksbee to me--she looked a trifle faded and jaded in the
lamplight: "Take my word for it, the silliest woman can manage a clever man;
but it needs a very clever woman to manage a fool."
Then we went in to supper.

THROWN AWAY.
"And some are sulky, while some will plunge
[So ho! Steady! Stand still, you!]
Some you must gentle, and some you must lunge.
[There! There! Who wants to kill you?]
Some--there are losses in every trade--
Will break their hearts ere bitted and made,
Will fight like fiends as the rope cuts hard,
And die dumb-mad in the breaking-yard."
--Toolungala Stockyard Chorus.
To rear a boy under what parents call the "sheltered life system" is, if the
boy must go into the world and fend for himself, not wise.


Pages:
532 533 534 535 536 537 538 539 540 541 542 543 544 545 546 547 548 549 550 551 552 553 554 555 556