Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/510

 492 RUDYARD KIPLING'S VERSE

"SOLDIER AN' SAILOR TOO"

(The Royal Regiment of Marines]

AS I was spittin' into the Ditch aboard o' the Crocodile, I seed a man on a man-o'-war got up in the Reg'lars'

style. 'E was scrapin' the paint from off of 'er plates, an' I sez to

'im, "'Oo are you?" Sez 'e, "I'm a Jolly 'Er Majesty's Jolly soldier an' sailor

too!" Now 'is work begins by Gawd knows when, and 'is work is

never through;

'E isn't one o* the reg'lar Line, nor 'e isn't one of the crew. 'E's a kind of a giddy harumfrodite soldier an' sailor too!

An', after, I met 'im all over the world, a-doin' all kinds of

things, Like landin' 'isself with a Gatlin' gun to talk to them 'eathen

kings; 'E sleeps in an 'ammick instead of a cot, an' 'e drills with the

deck on a slew, An' 'e sweats like a Jolly 'Er Majesty's Jolly soldier

an' sailor too! For there isn't a job on the top o' the earth the beggar don't

know, nor do You can leave 'im at night on a bald man's 'ead, to paddle 'is

own canoe 'E's a sort of a bloomin' cosmopolouse soldier an' sailor

too.

We've fought 'em in trooper, we've fought 'em in dock, and

drunk with 'em in betweens, When they called us the seasick scuU'ry-maids, an' we called

'em the Ass-Marines;