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Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936

"From Mine Own People"

Bring your things up from whatever place
you're staying in, and we"ll try to make this barn a little more shipshape."
"And then--oh, then," said Dick, still capering, "we will spoil the Egyptians!"
CHAPTER IV

The wolf-cub at even lay hid in the corn,
When the smoke of the cooking hung gray:
He knew where the doe made a couch for her fawn,
And he looked to his strength for his prey.
But the moon swept the smoke-wreaths away.
And he turned from his meal in the villager"s close,
And he bayed to the moon as she rose.
--In Seonee.
"WELL, and how does success taste?" said Torpenhow, some three months later. He
had just returned to chambers after a holiday in the country.
"Good," said Dick, as he sat licking his lips before the easel in the studio.
"I want more,--heaps more. The lean years have passed, and I approve of these
fat ones."
"Be careful, old man. That way lies bad work."
Torpenhow was sprawling in a long chair with a small fox-terrier asleep on his
chest, while Dick was preparing a canvas. A dais, a background, and a lay-
figure were the only fixed objects in the place. They rose from a wreck of
oddments that began with felt-covered water-bottles, belts, and regimental
badges, and ended with a small bale of second-hand uniforms and a stand of
mixed arms.


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