Life's Handicap: Being Stories of Mine Own PeopleKipling, Rudyard
History
Life's Handicap: Being Stories of Mine Own People
Kipling, Rudyard
India -- History -- British occupation, 1765-1947 -- Fiction; India -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Short stories, English
‘I was a young chap then, an’ mostly went wi’ ‘osses, leadin’ coal and
lead ore; but at th’ time I’m tellin’ on I was drivin’ the waggon-team
i’ th’ big sumph. I didn’t belong to that country-side by rights. I went
there because of a little difference at home, an’ at fust I took up wi’
a rough lot. One night we’d been drinkin’, an’ I must ha’ hed more than
I could stand, or happen th’ ale was none so good. Though i’ them days,
By for God, I never seed bad ale.’ He flung his arms over his head, and
gripped a vast handful of white violets. ‘Nah,’ said he, ‘I never seed
the ale I could not drink, the bacca I could not smoke, nor the lass I
could not kiss. Well, we mun have a race home, the lot on us. I lost
all th’ others, an’ when I was climbin’ ower one of them walls built o’
loose stones, I comes down into the ditch, stones and all, an’ broke my
arm. Not as I knawed much about it, for I fell on th’ back of my head,
an’ was knocked stupid like. An’ when I come to mysen it were mornin’,
an’ I were lyin’ on the settle i’ Jesse Roantree’s houseplace, an’ ‘Liza
Roantree was settin’ sewin’, I ached all ovver, and my mouth were like
a lime-kiln. She gave me a drink out of a china mug wi’ gold letters--“A
Present from Leeds”--as I looked at many and many a time at after.
“Yo’re to lie still while Dr. Warbottom comes, because your arm’s
broken, and father has sent a lad to fetch him. He found yo’ when he was
goin’ to work, an’ carried you here on his back,” sez she. “Oa!” sez I;
an’ I shet my eyes, for I felt ashamed o’ mysen. “Father’s gone to his
work these three hours, an’ he said he’d tell ‘em to get somebody to
drive the tram.” The clock ticked, an’ a bee comed in the house, an’
they rung i’ my head like mill-wheels. An’ she give me another drink
an’ settled the pillow. “Eh, but yo’re young to be getten drunk an’ such
like, but yo’ won’t do it again, will yo’?”--“Noa,” sez I, “I wouldn’t
if she’d not but stop they mill-wheels clatterin’.”’
‘Faith, it’s a good thing to be nursed by a woman when you’re sick!’
said Mulvaney. ‘Dir’ cheap at the price av twenty broken heads.’
Ortheris turned to frown across the valley. He had not been nursed by
many women in his life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account