Page:Rewards and Fairies (Kipling, 1910).djvu/341

 THE BALLAD OF MINEPIT SHAW

the time that taverns shut

And men can buy no beer,

Two lads went up to the keepers' hut

To steal Lord Pelham's deer.

Night and the liquor was in their heads

They laughed and talked no bounds,

Till they waked the keepers on their beds,

And the keepers loosed the hounds.

They had killed a hart, they had killed a hind,

Ready to carry away,

When they heard a whimper down the wind

And they heard a bloodhound bay.

They took and ran across the fern,

Their crossbows in their hand,

Till they met a man with a green lantern

That called and bade 'em stand.

'What are ye doing, O Flesh and Blood,

And what's your foolish will,

That you must break into Minepit Wood

And wake the Folk of the Hill?' 313