Page:Rewards and Fairies (Kipling, 1910).djvu/143

 BROOKLAND ROAD

very well pleased with what I knowed,

I reckoned myself no fool—

Till I met with a maid on the Brookland Road,

That turned me back to school.

Low down—low down!

Where the liddle green lanterns shine—

O maids, I’ve done with 'ee all but one,

And she can never be mine!

'Twas right in the middest of a hot June night,

With thunder duntin' round,

And I see'd her face by the fairy light

That beats from off the ground.

She only smiled and she never spoke,

She smiled and went away;

But when she'd gone my heart was broke,

And my wits was clean astray.

Oh! Stop your ringing and let me be—

Let be, O Brookland bells!

You'll ring Old Goodman out of the sea,

Before I wed one else!

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