—White Shadows in the South Seas.
1. What were the author and Red Chicken doing at the outset? Read the lines where the adventure begins.
2. Like most real adventures this one was all over in a moment. What happened? Why did it occur?
3. Spell, pronounce,and explain: phosphorescence, lure, stationary, propitiated, polytheistic, tattooing, caustic.
(Taken from O'Brien's White Shadows in the South Seas by permission of the publishers, The Century Co.)
A BALLAD OF EAST AND WEST
By Rudyard Kipling
No man has written more stirring tales, in prose or verse, in recent times than Rudyard Kipling. Born (1865) in Bombay, India, the son of an Englishman in the civil service, he became steeped in the ways of the men of the East. Consequently his first writings were sketches of Anglo-Indian life, written for Indian newspapers with which he was connected. Then followed a series of books on Eastern themes, some in prose and others in verse. Among these was Departmental Ditties from which the following narrative poem is taken. Read it through first to get the story and the atmosphere in mind.