Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/35

Rh Sleary bore the information with a chastened holy joy,——

[Epileptic fits don't matter in Political employ,]

Wired three short words to Carrie—took his ticket, packed his kit—

Bade farewell to Minnie Boffkin in one last, long, lingering fit.

Four weeks later, Carrie Sleary read—and laughed until she wept—

Mrs. Boffkin's warning letter on the "wretched epilept."

Year by year, in pious patience, vengeful Mrs. Boffkin sits

Waiting for the Sleary babies to develop Sleary's fits.