One of her present enthusiasms was her ‘Kipling Brothers,’ the boys’ band enlisted under the motto, ‘I saw a hundred men on the road to Delhi, and they were all my brothers.’ She believed that there was no salvation for a boy outside of a band. Banded somehow he must be, then badged, beribboned, bannered, and bye-lawed. From the moment a boy’s mother had left off her bye-lows, Mrs. Grubb wanted him put under bye-laws. She often visited Mistress Mary with the idea that some time she could interest her in one of her thousand schemes; but this special call was to see if the older children, whose neat handiwork she had seen and admired, could embroider mottoes on cardboard to adorn the Kipling room at an approaching festival. She particularly wanted ‘Look not upon the Wine’ done in blood-red upon black, and ‘Shun the Filthy Weed’ in smoke-colour on bright green. She had in her hand a card with the points for her annual address noted upon it, for this sort of work she ordinarily did in the horse-cars. These ran:
1st. Value of individuality. ‘I saw.’
2nd. Value of observation. ‘I saw.’
3rd. Value of numbers. ‘I saw a hundred men.’
4th. Importance of belonging to the male sex. It was men who were seen on the road.
5th. What and where is Delhi?
6th. Description of the road thither.
7th. Every boy has his Delhi.
8th. Are you ‘on the road’?
9th. The brotherhood of man.