



Produced by A. Elizabeth Warren





STALKY & CO.

By Rudyard Kipling




     “Let us now praise famous men”--
      Men of little showing--
     For their work continueth,
     And their work continueth,
      Greater than their knowing.

     Western wind and open surge
      Tore us from our mothers;
     Flung us on a naked shore
     (Twelve bleak houses by the shore!
     Seven summers by the shore!)
      ‘Mid two hundred brothers.

     There we met with famous men
      Set in office o’er us.
     And they beat on us with rods--
     Faithfully with many rods--
     Daily beat us on with rods--
      For the love they bore us!

     Out of Egypt unto Troy--
      Over Himalaya--
     Far and sure our bands have gone--
     Hy-Brasil or Babylon,
     Islands of the Southern Run,
      And cities of Cathaia!

     And we all praise famous men--
      Ancients of the College;
     For they taught us common sense---
     Tried to teach us common sense--
     Truth and God’s Own Common Sense
      Which is more than knowledge!

     Each degree of Latitude
      Strung about Creation
     Seeth one (or more) of us,
     (Of one muster all of us--
     Of one master all of us--)
      Keen in his vocation.

     This we learned from famous men
      Knowing not its uses
     When they showed in daily work
     Man must finish off his work--
     Right or wrong, his daily work--
      And without excuses.

     Servants of the staff and chain,
      Mine and fuse and grapnel--
     Some before the face of Kings,
     Stand before the face of Kings;
     Bearing gifts to divers Kings--
      Gifts of Case and Shrapnel.

     This we learned from famous men
      Teaching in our borders.
     Who declare’d it was best,
     Safest, easiest and best--
     Expeditious, wise and best--
      To obey your orders.

     Some beneath the further stars
      Bear the greater burden.
     Set to serve the lands they rule,
     (Save he serve no man may rule)
     Serve and love the lands they rule;
      Seeking praise nor guerdon.

     This we learned from famous men
      Knowing not we learned it.
     Only, as the years went by--
     Lonely, as the years went by--
     Far from help as years went by
      Plainer we discerned it.

     Wherefore praise we famous men
      From whose bays we borrow--
     They that put aside Today--
     All the joys of their Today--
     And with toil of their Today
      Bought for us Tomorrow!

     Bless and praise we famous men
      Men of little showing!
     For their work continueth
     And their work continueth
     Broad and deep continueth
      Great beyond their knowing!

     Copyright, 1899. by Rudyard Kipling




CONTENTS


     I.    IN AMBUSH
     II.   SLAVES OF THE LAMP--PART I.
     III.  AN UNSAVORY INTERLUDE
     IV.   THE IMPRESSIONISTS
     V.    THE MORAL REFORMERS
     VI.   A LITTLE PREP.
     VII.  THE FLAG OF THEIR COUNTRY
     VIII. THE LAST TERM
     IX.   SLAVES OF THE LAMP--PART II.




“IN AMBUSH.”


In summer all right-minded boys built huts in the furze-hill behind the
College--little lairs whittled out of the heart of the prickly bushes,
full of stumps, odd root-ends, and spikes, but, since they were strictly
forbidden, palaces of delight. And for the fifth summer in succession,
Stalky, McTurk, and Beetle (this was before they reached the dignity of
a study) had built like beavers a place of retreat and meditation, where
they smoked.

Now, there was nothing in their characters as known to Mr. Prout,
their house-master, at all commanding respect; nor did Foxy, the
subtle red-haired school Sergeant, trust them. His business was to wear
tennis-shoes, carry binoculars, and swoop hawklike upon evil boys. Had
he taken the field alone, that hut would have been raided, for Foxy
knew the manners of his quarry; but Providence moved Mr. Prout,
whose school-name, derived from the size of his feet, was Hoo