Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Editorial Practice
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- The Tragedy of Crusoe, C.S.
- Twenty Years After
- Dis Aliter Visum
- De Profundis
- The Unlimited “Draw” of “Tick” Boileau
- My Christmas Caller
- The History of a Crime
- Prisoners and Captives
- “From Olympus to Hades”
- “Les Miserables.”
- A Nightmare of Rule
- What Came of It
- An Official Secret
- Le Roi en Exil
- A Scrap of Paper
- The Mystification of Santa Claus
- “Love in Old Cloathes”
- The Case of Adamah
- A Tale of ’98
- A Rather More Fishy Case
- The House of Shadows
- The Confession of an Impostor
- The Judgment of Paris
- Five Days After Date
- The Hill of Illusion
- Le Monde ou L'On S'Amuse
- An Intercepted Letter
- The Recurring Smash
- How Liberty Came to the Bolan
- “Under Sentence”
- The Dreitarbund
- In Memoriam
- On Signatures
- The Great Strike
- “The Biggest Liar in Asia”
- Deputating a Viceroy
- A Merry Christmas
- The New Year's Sermon
- New Year's Gifts
- Mister Anthony Dawking
- “The Luck of Roaring Camp”
- The Wedding Guest
- The Tracking of Chuckerbutti
- “Bread upon the Waters”
- A Free Gift
- A Hill Homily
- The “Kingdom” of Bombay
- Bombaystes Furioso
- A Day Off
- The Unpunishable Cherub
- In Gilded Halls
- “Till the Day Break”
- The Fountain of Honour
- The Burden of Nineveh
- His Natural Destiny
- That District Log-Book
- An Unequal Match
- A Horrible Scandal
- An Exercise in Administration
- My New Purchase
- Exercises in Administration
- The Dignity of It.
- Exercises in Administration
- In Wonderland
- In the Year ’92
- “A Free Hand”
- Susannah and the Elder
- The Coming K
- What the World Said
- An Interesting Condition
- The Comet of a Season
- Gallihauk's Pup
- The Inauthorated Corpses
- One Lady at Wairakei
- The Princess in the Pickle-Bottle
- Why Snow Falls at Vernet
- The Cause of Humanity
- appendices
- Juvenilia
- Will Briart's Ghost
- My First Adventure
- Incomplete and Fragmentary Stories
- Stories Doubtfully Attributed
- Glossary
My First Adventure
from Juvenilia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 November 2018
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Editorial Practice
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- The Tragedy of Crusoe, C.S.
- Twenty Years After
- Dis Aliter Visum
- De Profundis
- The Unlimited “Draw” of “Tick” Boileau
- My Christmas Caller
- The History of a Crime
- Prisoners and Captives
- “From Olympus to Hades”
- “Les Miserables.”
- A Nightmare of Rule
- What Came of It
- An Official Secret
- Le Roi en Exil
- A Scrap of Paper
- The Mystification of Santa Claus
- “Love in Old Cloathes”
- The Case of Adamah
- A Tale of ’98
- A Rather More Fishy Case
- The House of Shadows
- The Confession of an Impostor
- The Judgment of Paris
- Five Days After Date
- The Hill of Illusion
- Le Monde ou L'On S'Amuse
- An Intercepted Letter
- The Recurring Smash
- How Liberty Came to the Bolan
- “Under Sentence”
- The Dreitarbund
- In Memoriam
- On Signatures
- The Great Strike
- “The Biggest Liar in Asia”
- Deputating a Viceroy
- A Merry Christmas
- The New Year's Sermon
- New Year's Gifts
- Mister Anthony Dawking
- “The Luck of Roaring Camp”
- The Wedding Guest
- The Tracking of Chuckerbutti
- “Bread upon the Waters”
- A Free Gift
- A Hill Homily
- The “Kingdom” of Bombay
- Bombaystes Furioso
- A Day Off
- The Unpunishable Cherub
- In Gilded Halls
- “Till the Day Break”
- The Fountain of Honour
- The Burden of Nineveh
- His Natural Destiny
- That District Log-Book
- An Unequal Match
- A Horrible Scandal
- An Exercise in Administration
- My New Purchase
- Exercises in Administration
- The Dignity of It.
- Exercises in Administration
- In Wonderland
- In the Year ’92
- “A Free Hand”
- Susannah and the Elder
- The Coming K
- What the World Said
- An Interesting Condition
- The Comet of a Season
- Gallihauk's Pup
- The Inauthorated Corpses
- One Lady at Wairakei
- The Princess in the Pickle-Bottle
- Why Snow Falls at Vernet
- The Cause of Humanity
- appendices
- Juvenilia
- Will Briart's Ghost
- My First Adventure
- Incomplete and Fragmentary Stories
- Stories Doubtfully Attributed
- Glossary
Summary
Published: ‘The Scribbler’, vol. i, no. 12, and vol. ii, no. 1 (3 and 30 June 1879).
Attribution: Lot 106 in the G. M. Williamson sale, New York, Anderson Galleries, 17 March 1915, where it is described as a copy by May Morris of a contribution from RK signed ‘Nickson’, a pseudonym used at this time by RK.
Text: Typescript copy, British Library, Add. MS 45337, ff. 120–6; 161–5.
Notes: Written for ‘The Scribbler’, a handwritten magazine got out by the children of William Morris and Sir Edward Burne-Jones from November 1878 to March 1880. Only two copies of each number were produced. The two parts of this story are both signed ‘Nickson’. RK's father, John Lockwood Kipling, contributed to Indian newspapers under the pseudonym ‘Nick’ (short for ‘nicotine’). RK was therefore ‘Nickson’. RK, 13 years old in 1879, was then in his second year at the United Services College, Westward Ho!, North Devon.
The original – i.e., a copy written out by May Morris for ‘The Scribbler’ – was bought from May Morris in 1901 by G. M. Williamson, and was sold with other items for the magazine at the Anderson Galleries, New York, 17 March 1915, Those items are now scattered.
The typescript copy of contributions to ‘The Scribbler’ in the British Library is in a volume mixing typescripts and manuscripts. The typescripts were presumably made before the sale of the manuscript material to Williamson, if in fact there was any manuscript apart from the copies made for the magazine.
‘My First Adventure’ has been reprinted in the Martindell–Ballard pamphlets and in Harbord, i, 501–7.
Part I
Our school at Hawesdean1 was situated near the little river Stour, and it was in connection with that stream that my first adventure took place. I will tell you how it all happened.
About the middle of the Midsummer term of 185 – we were challenged by the neighbouring school of Crickford to a cricket-match, and in a moment of enthusiasm, forgetful of the strength of our opponent team, accepted the challenge. As was expected, in spite of all our efforts and severe training, when the match came off they obtained many more runs than we, and defeat seemed inevitable.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cause of Humanity and Other StoriesThe Cause of Humanity and Other Stories Uncollected Prose Fictions, pp. 383 - 390Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2018