Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/41

Rh 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;

And, for twenty reeking minutes, Sir, my very marrow froze,

While the trunk was feeling blindly for a purchase on my toes!

It missed me by a fraction, but my hair was turning grey

Before they called the drivers up and dragged the brute away.

Then I sought the City Elders, and my words were very plain.

They flushed that four-foot drain-head and—it never choked again!

You may hold with surface-drainage, and the sun-for-garbage cure,

Till you've been a periwinkle shrinking coyly up a sewer.

I believe in well-flushed culverts....

This is why the death-rate's small;

And, if you don't believe me, get shikarred yourself. That's all.



THE LAST DEPARTMENT

ONE whole or clean," we cry, "or free from stain

Of favour." Wait awhile, till we attain

The Last Department where nor fraud nor fools,

Nor grade nor greed, shall trouble us again.

