"REWARDS AND FAIRIES."

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14531, 19 November 1910, Page 4 (Supplement)

"REWARDS AND FAIRIES."

fe- Admirers of Mr. Eudyard Kipling's §£■;:. "Puck of Pook's Hill" will welcome y[ ? " " "Rewards and Fairies" (Macmillan, Lonr'v-/ don), a further collection of stories told |, V; to Dan and Una (a year or two older now, tfc " and supposed to wear boots regularly) by ()-" certain interesting, personages of olden times who, as in the previous book, are " " introduced to them by their friend, Robin |v Good fellow. That some of these are old •■* acquaintances from " Puck of Pook s v Hill" pleases the reader quite as much as it delighted Dan and Unk. Ncr is it less ' satisfactory that Mr. Kipling again strews his pages with poems which illustrate and emphasise his stories. The opening _ lines of the first of these strike , a note which is echoed more or less clearly in each of the eleven talcs that form the f contents of the volume.

Take of English earth as much r--V A* either band may rightly clutch. '<•* In the taking of it breathe Prayer for all who lie beneath — Not the ffreat nor well bespoke, : • < But the- mere uncounted folk Of whose life and death is none ifrii " Report or lamentation. iV . Lay that earth upon thy heart,• • • ,?iV ' ' And thy sicknefs shall depart! In the story of "Gloriana" we are shown how Queen Elizabeth, for love of England, turned the heads and won the allegi- . ance of the youth of her realm. Two ,vv lads go to assured death at her bidding, •' and when at the end of the tale Dan is ■ • .asked whether he would have blamed her jr l , for wasting those lads' lives, he replies ."/ _ .thoughtfully' that he doesn't see what else J she could have done. _ t"r , 'In "The Conversion of St. Wilfrid," ? - Pad da, an old dog-seal, plays the part of ;; saviour to a shipwrecked company of . three Wilfrid himself (Wilfrid, Saint of >. Sussex and Archbishop of York), Eddi, J -i-. • the Archbishop's chaplain, and Meon, a !;/. chief under King Ethelwalch, a man of jiS';'.' ' learning and a brilliant talker. There Bad: bc-en a drought, and to get a good harvest the king ordered his people to be baptised, and true enough as soon as the ceremony was over it- rained heavily, ' p (jind. this was declared to be a miracle, vf. Meon, however, refused to be baptised. V- He would not, he said, forsake his father's gods just to curry favour with . the Christians' God. But- Meon makes K , a bargain. He would be baptised if the " c . ■ . Bishop would baptise Padda too. At this r~'\ Eddi is wroth, and the Bishop not a little vexed.. \ But both are humbled to the V point of death, and then they see differently. ' For when they had been rescued, K , • and' Meon offered himself for baptism, what does he say to his people but this : "Two days ago I asked Our Bishop •whether it was fair for a' man to desert his father's gods in a time of danger. Our Bishop- said it was not fair. .. . • he, a Christian, counselled me, a heathen, to stand by my father's gods. I tell you ■ "now that" a faith which takes care that every man shall keep faith, even though "he'may save his soul by breaking faith, : v is the faith: for.a. man to believe in." " Simple Simoii" recounts some stirring episodes in the ; early .."life, of , Francis Drake, told •with, a, zest . and humour thai; / to many will .make, it the best of the y\ stories. -, vt The ..vojjwpei which is to ,be k ~ issued t shortly, ' contains seven , others ;;; which, - take -the: reader ..through greatly • v varied scenes, .and introduce him to widely • .different characters. , ,