This is a children's story intending to teach some English history in an entertaining fashion, and it does a really good job of that. Certainly his child audience was a lot better educated than our sis today for the most part. The language and imagery is rich, even when he's not writing actual poetry. I found his religious perspective very disturbing, however, as I always do with Kipling. He is a humanist, but he also claims that Protestantism was an evil bringer of destruction and hatred to England. Smugglers are funny and clever. Catholics and Jews can wise, clever and good, but only when they support humanist and pagan goals. The worship of the "old gods" and fairies is far better than modern church practices in Kipling's mind.