“Because half a dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their importunate chink while thousands of great cattle, reposed beneath the shadow of the British oak, chew the cud and are silent, pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field-that, of course, they […]

Est fuga, volvitur rota,On we drift: where looms the dim port?One Two Three Four Five contribute their quota:Something is gained if one caught but the import,Show it us, Hugues of Saxe-Gotha.–Master Hugues of Saxe-Gotha. ‘Dressed! Don’t tell me that woman ever dressed in her life. She stood in the middle of the room while her […]

What rendered vain their deep desire?A God, a God their severance ruled,And bade between their shores to beThe unplumbed, salt, estranging sea.–Matthew Arnold. He. Tell your jhampanies not to hurry so, dear. They forget I’m fresh from the Plains. She. Sure proof that I have not been going out with any one. Yes, they are […]

Because to every purpose there is time and judgment,therefore the misery of man is great upon him.–Eccles. viii. 6. Fate and the Government of India have turned the Station of Kashima into a prison; and, because there is no help for the poor souls who are now lying there in torment, I write this story, […]

Men say it was a stolen tideThe Lord that sent it He knows all,But in mine ear will aye abideThe message that the bells let fall-And awesome bells they were to me,That in the dark rang, ‘Enderby.’–Jean Ingelow Once upon a time there was a Man and his Wife and a Tertium Quid. All three […]

I In the pleasant orchard-closes‘God bless all our gains,’ say we;But ‘May God bless all our losses,’Better suits with our degree.The Lost Bower. This is the history of a failure; but the woman who failed said that it might be an instructive tale to put into print for the benefit of the younger generation. The […]

When Man and Woman are agreed, what can the Kazi do? Mahomedan Proverb. Some people say that there is no romance in India. Those people are wrong. Our lives hold quite as much romance as is good for us. Sometimes more. Strickland was in the Police, and people did not understand him; so they said […]

“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. […]

“When halter and heel ropes are slipped,do not give chase with sticks but with gram.” Punjabi Proverb. After marriage arrives a reaction, sometimes a big, sometimes a little one; but it comes sooner or later, and must be tided over by both parties if they desire the rest of their lives to go with the […]

Look, you have cast out Love! What Gods are theseYou bid me please?The Three in One, the One in Three? Not so!To my own Gods I go.It may be they shall give me greater easeThan your cold Christ and tangled Trinities. The Convert. She was the daughter of Sonoo, a Hill-man, and Jadeh his wife. […]

On an evening after Easter Day, I sat at a table in a homeward bound steamer’s smoking-room, where half a dozen of us told ghost stories. As our party broke up a man, playing Patience in the next alcove, said to me: “I didn’t quite catch the end of that last story about the Curse […]

All day long to the judgment-seatThe crazed Provincials drew–All day long at their ruler’s feetHowled for the blood of the Jew.Insurrection with one accordBanded itself and woke:And Paul was about to open his mouthWhen Achaia’s Deputy spoke “Whether the God descend from aboveOr the man ascend upon high,Whether this maker of tents be JoveOr a […]

A Tale Of The Gihon Hunt A fox came out of his earth on the banks of the Great River Gihon, which waters Ethiopia. He saw a white man riding through the dry dhurra-stalks, and, that his destiny might be fulfilled, barked at him. The rider drew rein among the villagers round his stirrup. “What,” […]

The Celt in all his variants from Builth to Ballyhoo,His mental processes are plain–one knows what he will do,And can logically predicate his finish by his start:But the English–ah, the English!–they are quite a race apart. Their psychology is bovine, their outlook crude and rare;They abandon vital matters to be tickled with a straw;But the […]

I had not seen Penfentenyou since the Middle Nineties, when he was Minister of Ways and Woodsides in De Thouar’s first Administration. Last summer, though he nominally held the same portfolio, he was his Colony’s Premier in all but name, and the idol of his own province, which is two and a half times the […]

Who gives him the Bath?“I,” said the wet,Rank Jungle-sweat,“I’ll give him the Bath!” Who’ll sing the psalms?“We,” said the Palms.“Ere the hot wind becalms,We’ll sing the psalms.” Who lays on the sword?“I,” said the Sun,“Before he has done,I’ll lay on the sword.” Who fastens his belt?“I,” said Short-Rations,“I know all the fashionsOf tightening a belt!” […]

Long and long ago, when Devadatta was King of Benares, I wrote some tales concerning Strickland of the Punjab Police (who married Miss Youghal), and Adam, his son. Strickland has finished his Indian Service, and lives now at a place in England called Weston-super-Mare, where his wife plays the organ in one of the churches. […]

As ADAM lay a-dreaming beneath the Apple Tree,The Angel of the Earth came down, and offered Earth in fee.But Adam did not need it,Nor the plough he would not speed it,Singing:–“Earth and Water, Air and Fire,What more can mortal man desire?”(The Apple Tree’s in bud.) As Adam lay a-dreaming beneath the Apple Tree,The Angel of […]

A Story Of 2000 A. D. (Together with extracts from the magazine in which it appeared) At nine o’clock of a gusty winter night I stood on the lower stages of one of the G. P. O. outward mail towers. My purpose was a run to Quebec in “Postal Packet 162 or such other as […]

A FARMER of the Augustan agePerused in Virgil’s golden page,The story of the secret wonFrom Proteus by Cyrene’s sonHow the dank sea-god sowed the swainMeans to restore his hives againMore briefly, how a slaughtered bullBreeds honey by the bellyful. The egregious rustic put to deathA bull by stopping of its breath:Disposed the carcass in a […]