The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-06-18
TWO POETS
TOGETHER
Mr.. KIpling Entertains
Mr.. Stoddard at
Home.
Charles Warren Stoddard, in the Ma
tional MagaZine).

| Charles Warren Stoddard, in the Ma
| tional Magazine).
| It was a pretty climb up to Brattle-
boro and the day was passing fair. At
the station L looked in vain for Rud-
| yard KipIing, who had hidden me to
be his guest at Naulakha. I searched
| in some anxiety for the young man who
was all my fancy painted and more.
too. before L had ever laid eyes on him;
there was no Rudyard in the flesh with
in my horizon and 1 was almost in
despair when a good samaritan said
softly. "Are you looking for Mr.. Kip
ling? There is his trap" There it was,
| to be sure, as English as English: a
handsomely groomed cob, a smart cart,
! a. smarter British coachman in livery
on the high seat and all at my service,
if you please.
l We scattered HIS by the way and
We're the observed of all observers I'M
til we got out of the billy town and
We're we'll on the road to Naulakha. .
! a pretty land that, gloriously green,
and with hill and dale well wooded and
a rushing river that is choked with logs
in springtime.
OF course I might have known that
a busy author has no time to meet an
idle one at a way station-if I had only
thought of it in son. I might have
known, as well, that the ffttest turnout
in all Vermont could belong to none
ut 70 m
was so little understood by his neigh
bors on the other side of the fence that
there came a crisis in his life and adj
ventures, and like the Arab of the I'M
crowned American laureate, he silently
stole away.
AS we went bowling over the country
road on our way to Naulakha I thought
of the little note in my pocket-so very
unlike the notes in other keys that
have been attributed to him:
"Naulakha
"Brattleboro,
Vermont.
June 81, '95
you have but to let US know about
when you are coming; to name the day,
when you know it, a week or so in ad-
vance; and give US the New York hour
of departure of your train from the
Grand Central, and welcome shall you
be. I mention these homely details at
length that when you find you can get
away you may not say: They don't
expect me and my coming suddenly
might throw 'em out
! Remember now not to go wandering
by up the Massachusetts shore or play
ing in Beverly Farms or otherwise Civ
ing us the slip. I am concerned truly
about the Californian business but I
cannot say truthfully I shall be so
sorry if it brings you here
Suddenly we turned an airy corner
and dashed down the road between a
villa and a stable, both trim and hand
some and best of all, very hospitable-
I looking and home-like
4 This was NauIakhaI
! 4 In the doorway waving a welcome
stood Mr.. and Mrs. Kipling, radiant
with good cheer. The home was an
ideal one, the realization of a cherish
ed dream. The house has a whole
some, English air. 1t is ingeniously
planned. The masters den is upon the
lower left above the basement. A door
opens upon the veranda. From the
enclosure, where every sweet and home
, ly flower was in blossom when 1 arriv-
ed, and where the butterflies and bees
were evidently enjoying a garden party
high wall upon. the upper side of the
garden shut it off from prying eyes;
the road lay just beyond it; the garden
sioped to the sunshine and lay open to
, all the winds of heaven; from it's paths
one could look upon wide wales and dis
tant hills and bits of wildwood and
acres and acres of grain; it was love
~, restful and inviting view. Now the
art Of it all is, and the charm, of it.
that the den cannot be approached
| save through a great living room, and
there wass always someone there TO
head off intruders. Mrs Kipling was
usually the guardian angel of the
house 1t was not unfrequently her
unpleasant duty to refuse admittahce
to persistent ipterviewers. They did
not, L believe, ever scale the wall
or enter the garden, otherwise, and so
the den, while it seemed as careless of
intrusion as all-out-of- doors was in
reality inviolate. 1t was my happiness
to be ushered at once into the den and
to be offered it's freedom so long as L
remained a guest at Naulakha.
You must not mind me- said r. K,
wheeling about in his chair at the
writing desk: 81 shall not mind you.
Help yourself to books. When I am
not writing I can chat with you
That is just what he did. I found the
originals of all those booklets he pub
lished in India. which are now so rare
and bring so extravagant prices. I
read while he wrote. From time to
time I could hear him humming a
little tune to himself and presently he
would wheel round and read me the
couplet he had just written in that
rhythm. Or perchance it was a bit of
prose he read me. He seemed to have
no fixed hours for composition but to
be in the writing mood at almost any