Part 1

PUCK OF POOK’S HILL

BOOKS BY RUDYARD KIPLING

PUCK OF POOK’S HILL THEY TRAFFICS AND DISCOVERIES THE FIVE NATIONS THE JUST SO SONG BOOK JUST SO STORIES KIM STALKY & CO. THE DAY’S WORK THE BRUSHWOOD BOY FROM SEA TO SEA DEPARTMENTAL DITTIES AND BALLADS AND BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS PLAIN TALES FROM THE HILLS THE LIGHT THAT FAILED LIFE’S HANDICAP: BEING STORIES OF MINE OWN PEOPLE UNDER THE DEODARS, THE PHANTOM ’RICKSHAW, AND WEE WILLIE WINKIE SOLDIERS THREE, THE STORY OF THE GADSBYS, AND IN BLACK AND WHITE SOLDIER STORIES THE KIPLING BIRTHDAY BOOK (WITH WOLCOTT BALESTIER) THE NAULAHKA

Puck of Pook’s Hill

By Rudyard Kipling

Illustrated by Arthur Rackham, A.R.W.S.

NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 1906

Copyright, 1905, 1906, by RUDYARD KIPLING Published, October, 1906

All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian

ROBIN GOODFELLOW—HIS FRIENDS

By RUDYARD KIPLING

I. A Centurion of the Thirtieth. II. On the Great Wall. III. The Winged Hats. IV. Hal o’ the Draft. V. Dymchurch Flit. VI. The Treasure and the Law.

Copyright, 1906, by RUDYARD KIPLING.

CONTENTS

PAGE Puck’s Song 1 Weland’s Sword 5 A Tree Song 29 Young Men at the Manor 33 Sir Richard’s Song 55 Harp Song of the Dane Women 59 The Knights of the Joyous Venture 61 Thorkild’s Song 87 Old Men at Pevensey 91 The Runes on Weland’s Sword 119 A Centurion of the Thirtieth 125 A British-Roman Song 145 On the Great Wall 149 A Song to Mithras 173 The Winged Hats 177 A Pict Song 201 Hal o’ the Draft 207 A Smugglers’ Song 227 The Bee Boy’s Song 231 ‘Dymchurch Flit’ 233 A Three-Part Song 251 Song of the Fifth River 255 The Treasure and the Law 257 The Children’s Song 276

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

‘“Go!” she says, “Go with my Leave an’ Goodwill.”’ Frontispiece FACING PAGE In the very spot where Dan had stood as Puck they saw a 6 small, brown, broad-shouldered, pointy-eared person with a snub nose, slanting blue eyes, and a grin that ran right across his freckled face. ‘There’s where you meet hunters, and trappers for the 152 Circuses, prodding along chained bears and muzzled wolves.’ ‘Hoity-toity!’ he cried. ‘Here’s Pride in purple 212 feathers! Here’s wrathy contempt and the Pomps of the Flesh!’... And he doffed his cap to the bubbling bird.

PUCK OF POOK’S HILL

PUCK’S SONG

See you the dimpled track that runs, All hollow through the wheat? O that was where they hauled the guns That smote King Philip’s fleet.

See you our little mill that clacks, So busy by the brook? She has ground her corn and paid her tax Ever since Domesday Book.

See you our stilly woods of oak, And the dread ditch beside? O that was where the Saxons broke, On the day that Harold died.

See you the windy levels spread About the gates of Rye? O that was where the Northmen fled, When Alfred’s ships came by.

See you our pastures wide and lone, Where the red oxen browse? O there was a City thronged and known, Ere London boasted a house.

And see you, after rain, the trace Of mound and ditch and wall? O that was a Legion’s camping-place, When Cæsar sailed from Gaul.

And see you marks that show and fade, Like shadows on the Downs? O they are the lines the Flint Men made, To guard their wondrous towns.

Trackway and Camp and City lost, Salt Marsh where now is corn; Old Wars, old Peace, old Arts that cease, And so was England born!

She is not any common Earth, Water or wood or air, But Merlin’s Isle of Gramarye, Where you and I will fare.