COLLECTION

OF

BRITISH AUTHORS

TAUCHNITZ EDITION.

VOL. 3689.

THE FIVE NATIONS. BY RUDYARD KIPLING.

IN ONE VOLUME.

THE CITY OF DREADFUL NIGHT, AND OTHER SKETCHES
KIM

2 vols.

I vol.

AUTHOR)

JUST SO STORIES FOR LITTLE CHILDREN (ILLUSTRATED BY THE

I vol.

I vol.

THE FIVE NATIONS

BY

RUDYARD KIPLING

AUTHOR OF "PLAIN TALES FROM THE HILLS,” “STALKY & CO.,"
"KIM," ETC. ETC.

COPYRIGHT EDITION

LEIPZIG

BERNHARD TAUCHNITZ

1903.

019 010 E, S

DEDICATION.

Before a midnight breaks in storm,

Or herded sea in wrath,

Ye know what wavering gusts inform

The greater tempest's path;

Till the loosed wind

Drive all from mind,

Except Distress, which, so will prophets cry,
O'ercame them, houseless, from the unhinting sky.

Ere rivers league against the land

In piratry of flood,

Ye know what waters slip and stand

Where seldom water stood.

Yet who will note,

Till fields afloat,

And washen carcass and the returning well,
Trumpet what these poor heralds strove to tell?

Ye know who use the Crystal Ball

(To peer by stealth on Doom),
The Shade that, shaping first of all,

Prepares an empty room.
Then doth It pass

Like breath from glass,

But, on the extorted vision bowed intent,

No man considers why It came or went.