The Project Gutenberg EBook of Under the Deodars, by Rudyard Kipling

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Title: Under the Deodars

Author: Rudyard Kipling

Posting Date: January 8, 2009 [EBook #2828]
Release Date: September, 2001

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNDER THE DEODARS ***

UNDER THE DEODARS

By Rudyard Kipling

Contents

The Education of Otis Yeere
At the Pit's Mouth
A Wayside Comedy
The Hill of Illusion
A Second-rate Woman
Only a Subaltern
In the Matter of a Private
The Enlightenments of Pagett. M. P.

UNDER THE DEODARS

THE EDUCATION OF OTIS YEERE

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 younger generation does not want instruction,
being perfectly willing to instruct if any one will listen to it. None
the less, here begins the story where every right-minded story should
begin, that is to say at Simla, where all things begin and many come to
an evil end.

The mistake was due to a very clever woman making a blunder and not
retrieving it. Men are licensed to stumble, but a clever woman's mistake
is outside the regular course of Nature and Providence; since all good
people know that a woman is the only infallible thing in this world,
except Government Paper of the '79 issue, bearing interest at four and
a half per cent. Yet, we have to remember that six consecutive days
of rehearsing the leading part of The Fallen Angel, at the New Gaiety
Theatre where the plaster is not yet properly dry, might have brought
about an unhingement of spirits which, again, might have led to
eccentricities.

Mrs. Hauksbee came to 'The Foundry' to tiffin with Mrs. Mallowe, her one
bosom friend, for she was in no sense 'a woman's woman.' And it was a
woman's tiffin, the door shut to all the world; and they both talked
chiffons, which is French