The measure of a man's popularity is not always or indeed seldom the measure of his intrinsic worth. So, when the earlier work of any writer is gathered together in more enduring form, catering to the enthusiasm of his readers in his maturer years, there is always a suspicion that his venture is purely a commercial one, without literary justification.
Fortunately these thirty-one stories of Mr. Kipling's form their own best excuse for this, their first appearance together in book form. Not merely because in them may be traced the origin of that style and subject matter that later made their author famous; but because the stories are in themselves worth while worth writing, and worth reading.