Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/276

 THE GIFT OF THE SEA

dead child lay in the shroud,

And the widow watched beside;

And her mother slept, and the Channel swept

The gale in the teeth of the tide.

But the mother laughed at all.

"I have lost my man in the sea,

"And the child is dead. Be still," she said,

"What more can ye do to me?"

The widow watched the dead,

And the candle guttered low,

And she tried to sing the Passing Song

That bids the poor soul go.

And "Mary take you now," she sang,

"That lay against my heart."

And "Mary smooth your crib to-night,"

But she could not say "Depart."

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