Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/34

20 So they recognized the business and, to feed and clothe the bride,

Got him made a Something-Something somewhere on the Bombay side.

Anyhow, the billet carried pay enough for him to marry—

As the artless Sleary put it:—"Just the thing for me and Carrie."

Did he, therefore, jilt Miss Boffkin—impulse of a baser mind?

No! He started epileptic fits of an appalling kind.

[Of his modus operandi only this much I could gather:—

"Pears shaving sticks will give you little taste and lots of lather."]

Frequently in public places his affliction used to smite

Sleary with distressing vigour—always in the Boffkins' sight.

Ere a week was over Minnie weepingly returned his ring,

Told him his "unhappy weakness" stopped all thought of marrying.