Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/47

Rh Never young Civilian's prospects were so bright,

Till an Indian paper found that he could write:

Never young Civilian's prospects were so dark,

When the wretched Blitzen wrote to make his mark.

Certainly he scored it, bold, and black, and firm—

In that Indian paper made his seniors squirm—

Quoted office scandals, wrote the tactless truth—

Was there ever known a more misguided youth?

When the Indian paper praised his plucky game,

Boanerges Blitzen felt that this was fame:

When the men he wrote of shook their heads and swore,

Boanerges Blitzen only wrote the more;

Posed as Young Ithuriel, resolute and grim,

Till he found promotion didn't come to him;

Till he found that reprimands weekly were his lot,

And his many Districts curiously hot.

Till he found his furlough strangely hard to win,

Boanerges Blitzen didn't care a pin:

Then it seemed to dawn on him something wasn't right—

Boanerges Blitzen put it down to "spite."