Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Wipe you feet, dear

HEAR and attend and listen; for this befell and behappened and became and was, O my Best Beloved, when the Tame animals were wild. The Dog was wild, and the Horse was wild, and the Cow was wild, and the Sheep was wild, and the Pig was wild--as wild as wild could be--and they walked in the Wet Wild Woods by their wild lones. But the wildest of all the wild animals was the Cat. He walked by himself, and all places were alike to him.
Of course the Man was wild too. He was dreadfully wild. He didn't even begin to be tame till he met the Woman, and she told him that she did not like living in his wild ways. She picked out a nice dry Cave, instead of a heap of wet leaves, to lie down in; and she strewed clean sand on the floor; and she lit a nice fire of wood at the back of the Cave; and she hung a dried wild-horseskin, tail-down, across the opening of the Cave; and she said, 'Wipe you feet, dear, when you come in, and now we'll keep house.'
Ruyard Kipling: Just So Stories

Actions and Reactions
American Notes
Barrack Room Ballads
The Bridge Builders
Captains Courageous
Captains Courageous
The Day's Work - Part 01
The Day's Work - Volume 1
Departmental Ditties & Barrack Room Ballads
A Diversity of Creatures
The Eyes of Asia
France at WarOn the Frontier of Civilization
From Mine Own People
Indian Tales
The Jungle Book
Just So Stories
Kim
The Kipling ReaderSelections from the Books of Rudyard Kipling
Letters of Travel (1892-1913)
Life's Handicap
The Light That Failed
The Lock and Key Library The Man Who Would Be King
The Phantom Rickshaw and Other Ghost Stories
Plain Tales from the Hills
Puck of Pook's Hill
Puck of Pook's Hill
Rewards and Fairies
Sea Warfare
The Second Jungle Book
Soldiers Three
Soldiers Three - Part 2
Songs from Books
Stalky & Co.
The Story of the Gadsbys
Traffics and Discoveries
Under the Deodars
Verses 1889-1896
The Years Between

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