More-Than-Oriental-Splendour

The Knee-Biter and I have been reading Rudyard Kipling's The Just So Stories. The version I have is complete with his illustrations, too. I nudge her elbow every time he writes "Best Beloved." It is so ecstatically clear that he meant these stories to be heard, and to be taken not-very-seriously-at-all. Reading him out loud is like having the entire Monty Python troupe trying to get out of one's mouth at once.