Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/514

 496 RUDYARD KIPLING'S VERSE

We blast out the rock an' we shovel the mud, We make 'em good roads an' they roll down the khud* Reporting, etc.

We make 'em their bridges, their wells, an' their huts, An' the telegraph-wire the enemy cuts, An' it's blamed on, etc.

An' when we return, an' from war we would cease, They grudge us adornin' the billets of peace, Which are kept for, etc.

We build 'em nice barracks they swear they are bad, That our Colonels are Methodist, married or mad, Insultin' etc.

They haven't no manners nor gratitude too, For the more that we help 'em, the less will they do, But mock at, etc.

Now the Line's but a man with a gun in his hand, An' Cavalry's only what horses can stand, When helped by, etc.

Artillery moves by the leave o' the ground, But we are the men that do something all round, For we are, etc.

I have stated it plain, an' my argument's thus

("It's all one," says the Sapper) There's only one Corps which is perfect that's us;

An' they call us Her Majesty's Engineers,

Her Majesty's Royal Engineers,

With the rank and pay of a Sapper!

> Hillside.