Page:Essays in miniature.djvu/148



R. RUDYARD KIPLING has prefaced his little volume of Child Stories with a modest intimation that he finds the subject almost beyond his grasp. He says:

This sounds disarming, and at the same time strikes a popular note respecting these fortunate little people, who, after having been considered for many years as unworthy of the novelist's regard, have now suddenly grown too complex and subtle for him to hope to understand. Mr. Kipling himself approaches them with great caution, and treats them with careful conventionality, except in that pitiful 144