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Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936

"Under the Deodars"

If
she be tender-hearted, and send for a drink of water, the chances
are largely in favor of another girl laughing at the afflicted one and
herself collapsing. Thus Lhe trouble spreads, and may end in half
of what answers to the Lower Sixth of a boys' school rocking and
whooping together. Given a week of warm weather, two stately
promenades per diem, a heavy mutton and rice meal in the middle
of the day, a certain amount of nagging from the teachers, and a
few other things, some amazing effects develop. At least this is
what folk say who have had experience.
Now, the Mother Superior of a Convent and the Colonel of a
British Infantry Regiment would be justly shocked at any
comparison being made between their respective charges. But it is
a fact that, under certain circumstances, Thomas in bulk can be
worked up into ditthering, rippling hysteria. He does not weep, but
he shows his trouble unmistakably, and the consequences get into
the newspapers, and all the good people who hardly know a
Martini from a Snider say: "Take away the brute's ammunition!"
Thomas isn't a brute, and his business, which is to look after the
virtuous people, nemands that he shall have his am-munition to his
hand. He doesn't wear silk stockings, and he really ought to he
supplied with a new Adjective to help him to express his opinions;
but, for all that, he is a great man.


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