Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/238

54 It's woe to bend the stubborn back

Above the grinching quern,

It's woe to hear the leg-bar clack

And jingle when I turn!

But for the sorrow and the shame,

The brand on me and mine,

I'll pay you back in leaping flame

And loss of the butchered kine.

For every cow I spared before

In charity set free,

If I may reach my hold once more

I'll reive an honest three!

For every time I raised the low

That scared the dusty plain,

By sword and cord, by torch and tow

I'll light the land with twain!

Ride hard, ride hard to Abazai,

Young sahib with the yellow hair—

Lie close, lie close as khuttucks lie,

Fat herds below Bonair!