Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/53

Rh I didn't care to meet him, and I couldn't well get down,

So I let the Waler have it, and we headed for the town.

The buggy was a new one and, praise Dykes, it stood the strain

Till the Waler jumped a bullock just above the City Drain;

And the next that I remember was a hurricane of squeals,

And the creature making toothpicks of my five-foot patent wheels.

He seemed to want the owner, so I fled, distraught with fear,

To the Main Drain sewage-outfall where he snorted in my ear—

Reached the four-foot drain-head safely, and in darkness and despair,

Felt the brute's proboscis fingering my terror-stiffened hair.

Heard it trumpet on my shoulder—tried to crawl a little higher—

Found the Main Drain sewage-outfall blocked, some eight feet up, with mire;