“The Elephant` s Child”, “How the Leopard Got His Spots”, the incomparable “The Cat that Walked by Himself” and the other fables in this collection were first told by Kipling to an eager nursery audience of his own children. In subject and setting they range from animals to the origins of the alphabet and from prehistoric caves to the jungle forests of Africa. Illustrated with playful, riddling drawings and scattered through with rhymes and poems, this is a richly inventive collection, every tale a miniature masterpiece touched with Kipling` s magic.