Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/129

 The widow and the orphan That pray for ten per cent, They clapped their trailers on us To spy the road we went. They watched the foreign sailings (They scan the shipping still), And that's your Christian people Returning good for ill!

God bless the thoughtful islands Where never warrants come; God bless the just Republics That give a man a home, That ask no foolish questions, But set him on his feet; And save his wife and daughters From the workhouse and the street!

On church and square and market The noonday silence falls; You'll hear the drowsy mutter Of the fountain in our halls. Asleep amid the yuccas The city takes her ease— Till twilight brings the land-wind To the clicking jalousies.

Day long the diamond weather, The high, unaltered blue— The smell of goats and incense And the mule-bells tinkling through. Day long the warder ocean That keeps us from our kin, And once a month our levee When the English mail comes in.