City Readers Digital Historic Collections at the New York Society Library

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
Collected Dog Stories
Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1934

I have two books I want to recommend that I found in
the last ten years and have returned to several times. I
discovered both in the obscure stack 11. Being able to
roam the open stacks is one of the gifts the NYSL provides.

Collected Dog Stories was just sitting there in Stack 11
waiting for me to check it out. It appears to be in its
original binding. Of the fourteen stories and poems in this
volume, the one I remember most fondly is “Four-Feet.”

I have done mostly what most men do,
And pushed it out of my mind;
But I can’t forget, if I wanted to,
Four-Feet trotting behind.

Day after day, the whole day through—
Wherever my road inclined—
Four feet said, “I am coming with you!”
And trotted along behind.

Now I must go by some other round,—
Which I shall never find—
Somewhere that does not carry the sound
Of Four-Feet trotting behind.”

The illustrations are marvelous.

Rebecca Morrow (member)