Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/113

 A BALLADE OF JAKKO HILL

moment bid the horses wait,

Since tiffin is not laid till three,

Below the upward path and strait

You climbed a year ago with me.

Love came upon us suddenly

And loosed—an idle hour to kill—

A headless, harmless armoury

That smote us both on Jakko Hill.

Ah Heaven! we would wait and wait

Through Time and to Eternity!

Ah Heaven! we would conquer Fate

With more than Godlike constancy!

I cut the date upon a tree—

Here stand the clumsy figures still:—

"10-7-85, A. D."

Damp with the mist on Jakko Hill.

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