Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/145

 WHAT THE PEOPLE SAID

[, 1887]

the well, where the bullocks go

Silent and blind and slow—

By the field, where the young corn dies

In the face of the sultry skies,

They have heard, as the dull Earth hears

The voice of the wind of an hour,

The sound of the Great Queen's voice:—

"My God hath given me years,

"Hath granted dominion and power:

"And I bid you, O Land, rejoice."

And the Ploughman settles the share

More deep in the grudging clod;

For he saith:—"The wheat is my care

"And the rest is the will of God.

"He sent the Mahratta spear

"As He sendeth the rain,

"And the Mlech, in the fated year,

"Broke the spear in twain, 131