Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/132

118 And drops the reckless rider down

The rotten, rain-soaked khud;

So long as rumours from the North

Make loving wives afraid,

So long as Burma claims the boy,

And typhoid kills the maid,

If you love me as I love you

What knife can cut our love in two?

By all that lights our daily life

Or works our lifelong woe,

From Boileaugunge to Simla Downs

And those grim glades below,

Where heedless of the flying hoof

And clamour overhead,

Sleep, with the gray-langur for guard

Our very scornful Dead,

If you love me as I love you

All Earth is servant to us two!

By Docket, Billetdoux, and File,

By Mountain, Cliff, and Fir,

By Fan and Sword and Office-box,

By Corset, Plume, and Spur;