Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/148

 THE UNDERTAKER'S HORSE

"To-tschin-shu is condemned to death. How can he drink tea with the executioner?"—.

eldest son bestrides him,

And the pretty daughter rides him,

And I meet him oft o' mornings on the Course;

And there wakens in my bosom

An emotion chill and gruesome

As I canter past the Undertaker's Horse.

Neither shies he nor is restive,

But a hideously suggestive

Trot, professional and placid, he affects;

And the cadence of his hoof-beats

To my mind this grim reproof beats:—

"Mend your pace, my friend, I'm coming. Who's the next?"

Ah! stud-bred of ill-omen,

I have watched the strongest go—men 134