Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/115

 THE PLEA OF THE SIMLA DANCERS

have we ever done to bear this grudge?"

Was there no room save only in Benmore

For docket, duftar, and for office drudge,

That you usurp our smoothest dancing floor?

Must babus do their work on polished teak?

Are ball-rooms fittest for the ink you spill?

Was there no other cheaper house to seek?

You might have left them all at Strawberry Hill.

We never harmed you! Innocent our guise,

Dainty our shining feet, our voices low; 101