Also includes: In an Opium Factory; Among the Railway Folk; To Be Filed for Reference; By Word of Mouth; Wressley of the Foreign Office; On the Strength of a Likeness; The Story of Muhammad Din; gate of the Hundred Sorrows; Drums in the Fore and Aft; His Majesty the King; Baa Baa Black Sheep. ( )

Some of Kipling's work holds up well against modern sensibilities - these stories don't. Tales of adultery and affairs, ghost stories, and sweetly lisping children - all set in British India.

It is quite interesting to contrast the children in these stories ('I don't know what vat means,' said Wee Willie Winkie, 'but you mustn't call me Winkie any no more. I'm Percival Will'am Will'ams.') with the much more famous Kim. They are tougher and more moral than their elders, to the point of dying in front of them (The Drums of the Fore and Aft), so perhaps this is just a last flowering of Victorian sentimentalism.

For those who have only seen the film of The Man who would be King, you will find the original tale rather different. ( )