Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/397

Rh It's North you may run to the rime-ringed sun

Or South to the blind Horn's hate;

Or East all the way into Mississippi Bay,

Or West to the Golden Gate;

Where the blindest bluffs hold good, dear lass,

And the wildest tales are true,

And the men bulk big on the old trail, our own trail, the out trail,

And life runs large on the Long Trail—the trail that is always new.

The days are sick and cold, and the skies are grey and old,

And the twice-breathed airs blow damp;

And I'd sell my tired soul for the bucking beam-sea roll

Of a black Bilbao tramp;

With her load-line over her hatch, dear lass,

And a drunken Dago crew,

And her nose held down on the old trail our own trail, the out trail

From Cadiz Bar on the Long Trail—the trail that is always new.