The Miracle of Saint Jubanus

Large 12mo. Cream, softcover paper binding with green, stamped lettering to front cover. Like many of Kipling's tales in his last two collections, this is another story of the aftermath of the Great War. It is set in a little village in central France, and narrated by the tall old priest, who himself had served in the war.?Many young men from the village had gone away to fight in the trenches. One, Martin Ballart, the only one of his family to survive, had returned a broken man,?'blasted, withered, dumb.'?The priest had prayed to St Jubanus for him to be healed, but to no avail.?But then, on the Saint's feast-day, all the village are in the church for Mass, and there is a hilarious episode. Two mischievous young altar-boys cannot resist playing with the priest's huge umbrella. They get entangled in it, and as they struggle to escape, the umbrella appears to walk down the aisle of its own accord. The pompous atheistical schoolmaster intervenes, and is caught too, by the beard. The Mass collapses in gales of laughter, led by the priest, and then there comes the miracle: Martin laughs too; with the laughter his terrors are dissolved away, and he is healed.?Very Good. Binding tight. Textblock clean.…