Stalky & Co.

Publisher Marketing: "Hullo. What's the giddy jest?" Sefton and Campbell entered to find Beetle on his side, his head against the fender, weeping copiously, while M'Turk prodded him in the back with his toes. "It's only Beetle," Stalky explained. "He's shammin' hurt. I can't get Turkey to go for him properly." Sefton promptly kicked both boys, and his face lighted. "All right, I'll attend to 'em. Get up an' cock-fight, you two. Give me the stump. I'll tickle 'em. Here's a giddy jest! Come on, Campbell. Let's cook 'em." Then M'Turk turned on Stalky and called him very evil names. "You said you were goin' to cock-fight too, Stalky. Come on!" "More ass you for believin' me, then!" shrieked Stalky. "Have you chaps had a row?" said Campbell. "Row?" said Stalky. "Huh! I'm only educatin' them. D'you know anythin' about cock-fighting, Seffy?" "Do I know? Why, at Maclagan's, where I was crammin' in town, we used to cock-fight in his drawing-room, and little Maclagan daren't say anything. But we were just the same as men there, of course. Do I know? I'll show you." "Can't I get up?" moaned Beetle, as Stalky sat on his shoulder. "Don't jaw, you fat piffler. You're going to fight Seffy." "He'll slay me!" "Oh, lug 'em into our study." said Campbell. "It's nice an' quiet in there. I'll cock-fight Turkey. This is an improvement on young Clewer." "Right O! I move it's shoes-off for them an' shoes-on for us," said Sefton joyously, and the two were flung down on the study floor. Stalky rolled them behind an arm-chair. "Now I'll tie you two up an' direct the bull-fight. Golly, what wrists you have, Seffy. They're too thick for a wipe; got a box-rope?" said he. "Lots in the corner," Sefton replied. "Hurry up! Stop blubbin', you brute, Beetle. We're goin' to have a giddy campaign. Losers have to sing for the winners - sing odes in honour of the conqueror. You call yourself a beastly poet, don't you. Beetle? I'll poet you." He wriggled into position by Campbell's side. Swiftly and scientifically the stumps were thrust through the natural crooks, and the wrists tied with well stretched box-ropes to an accompaniment of insults from M'Turk, bound, betrayed, and voluble behind the chair. Stalky set away Campbell and Sefton, and strode over to his allies, locking the door on the way. "And that's all right," said he in a changed voice. "What the devil?" Sefton began. Beetle's false tears had ceased; M'Turk, smiling, was on his feet. Together they bound the knees and ankles of the enemy even more straitly. Contributor Bio:  Kipling, Rudyard Nobel prize-winning writer Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay, India, but returned with his parents to England at the age of five. Influenced by experiences in both India and England, Kipling's stories celebrate British imperialism and the experience of the British soldier in India. Amongst Kipling's best-known works are The Jungle Book, Just So Stories, and the poems "Mandalay" and "Gunga Din." Kipling was the first English-language writer to receive the Nobel prize for literature (1907) and was amongst the youngest to receive the award. Kipling died in 1936 and is interred in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.