THE SERVICE EDITION OF THE WORKS OF RUDYARD KIPLING WEE WILLIE WINKIE AND OTHER STORIES BY RUDYARD KIPLING IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. II MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON 1914 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENTS Page The Man who would be King 3 Wee Willie Winkie 67 Baa Baa, Black Sheep 85 His Majesty the King 132 The Drums of the Fore and Aft 151 THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING Brother to a Prince and fellow to a beggar if he be found worthy The Law, as quoted, lays down a fair conduct of life, and one not easy to follow. I have been fellow to a beggar again and again under circumstances which prevented either of us finding out whether the other was worthy. I have still to be brother to a Prince, though I once came near to kinship with what might have been a veritable King, and was promised the reversion of a Kingdom—army, law-courts, revenue, and policy all complete. But, to-day, I greatly fear that my King is dead, and if I want a crown I must go hunt it for myself. The beginning of everything was in a railway train upon the road to Mhow from Ajmir. There had been a Deficit in the Budget, which necessitated travelling, not Second-class, which is only half as dear as First-class, but by Intermediate, which is very awful indeed. There are no cushions in the Intermediate class, and the population are either Intermediate, which is Eurasian, or native, which for a long night journey is nasty, or Loafer, which is amusing though intoxicated. Intermediates do not buy from refreshment-rooms. They carry their food in bundles and pots, and buy sweets from the native sweetmeat-sellers, and drink the roadside water. That is why in the hot weather Intermediates are taken out of the carriages dead, and in all weathers are most properly looked down upon. My particular Intermediate happened to be empty till I reached Nasirabad, when a big black-browed gentleman in shirt-sleeves entered, and, following the custom of Intermediates, passed the time of day. He was a wanderer and a vagabond like myself, but with an educated taste for whisky. He told tales of things he had seen and done, of out-of-the-way corners of the Empire into which he had penetrated, and of adventures in which he risked his life for a few days’ food.