Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/309

 AN IMPERIAL RESCRIPT

this is the tale of the Council the German Kaiser decreed,

To ease the strong of their burden, to help the weak in their need

He sent a word to the peoples, who struggle, and pant, and sweat,

That the straw might be counted fairly and the tally of bricks be set.

The Lords of Their Hands assembled; from the East and the West they drew—

Baltimore, Lille, and Essen, Brummagem, Clyde, and Crewe.

And some were black from the furnace, and some were brown from the soil,

And some were blue from the dye-vat; but all were wearied of toil.

125