A DIVERSITY OF CREATURES By RUDYARD KIPLING 1917 PREFACE With two exceptions, the dates at the head of these stories show when they were published in magazine form. 'The Village that Voted the Earth was Flat,' and 'My Son's Wife' carry the dates when they were written. RUDYARD KIPLING. CONTENTS As Easy as ABC _MacDonough's Song_ Friendly Brook _The Land_ In the Same Boat '_Helen all Alone_' The Honours of War _The Children_ The Dog Hervey _The Comforters_ The Village that Voted the Earth was Flat _The Press_ In the Presence _Jobson's Amen_ Regulus _A Translation_ The Edge of the Evening _Rebirth_ The Horse Marines _The Legend of Mirth_ 'My Son's Wife' _The Floods_ _The Fabulists_ The Vortex _The Song of Seven Cities_ 'Swept and Garnished' Mary Postgate _The Beginnings_ A DIVERSITY OF CREATURES As Easy as A.B.C. (1912) _The A.B.C., that semi-elected, semi-nominated body of a few score persons, controls the Planet. Transportation is Civilisation, our motto runs. Theoretically we do what we please, so long as we do not interfere with the traffic_ and all it implies. _Practically, the A.B.C. confirms or annuls all international arrangements, and, to judge from its last report, finds our tolerant, humorous, lazy little Planet only too ready to shift the whole burden of public administration on its shoulders_. 'With the Night Mail[1].' [Footnote 1: _Actions and Reactions_.] Isn't it almost time that our Planet took some interest in the proceedings of the Aërial Board of Control? One knows that easy communications nowadays, and lack of privacy in the past, have killed all curiosity among mankind, but as the Board's Official Reporter I am bound to tell my tale. At 9.30 A.M., August 26, A.D. 2065, the Board, sitting in London, was informed by De Forest that the District of Northern Illinois had riotously cut itself out of all systems and would remain disconnected till the Board should take over and administer it direct. Every Northern Illinois freight and passenger tower was, he reported, out of action; all District main, local, and guiding lights had been extinguished; all General Communications were dumb, and through traffic had been diverted. No reason had been given, but he gathered unofficially from the Mayor of Chicago that the District complained of 'crowd-making and invasion of privacy.' As a matter of fact, it is of no importance whether Northern Illinois stay in or out of planetary circuit; as a matter of policy, any complaint of invasion of privacy needs immediate investigation, lest worse follow.