Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/310

126 And the young King said, "I have found it, the road to the rest ye seek;

"The strong shall wait for the weary, the hale shall halt for the weak;

"With the even tramp of an army where no man breaks from the line,

"Ye shall march to peace and plenty in the bond of brotherhood—sign!"

The paper lay on the table, the strong heads bowed thereby,

And a wail went up from the peoples: "Ay, sign—give rest, for we die!"

A hand was stretched to the goose-quill, a fist was cramped to scrawl,

When—the laugh of a blue-eyed maiden ran clear through the council-hall.

And each one heard Her laughing as each one saw Her plain—

Saidie, Mimi, or Olga, Gretchen, or Mary Jane.

And the Spirit of Man that is in Him to the light of the vision woke;

And the men drew back from the paper, as a Yankee delegate spoke;—