Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/539

 INCLUSIVE EDITION, 1885-1918 521

For they was odd most awful odd

But all the same now they are o'er, There must be 'caps o' plenty such,

An' if I wait I'll see some more.

Oh, I 'ave come upon the books,

An* frequent broke a barrick-rule, An' stood beside an' watched myself

Be'avin' like a bloomin' fool. I paid my price for findin' out,

Nor never grutched the price I paid, But sat in Clink without my boots,

Admirin' 'ow the world was made.

Be'old a cloud upon the beam,

An' 'umped above the sea appears Old Aden, like a barrick-stove

That no one's lit for years an' years! I passed by that when I began,

An' I go 'ome the road I came, A time-expired soldier-man

With six years' service to 'is name.

My girl she said, "Oh, stay with me!"

My mother 'eld me to 'er breast. They've never written none, an* so

They must 'ave gone with all the rest With all the rest which I 'ave seen

An' found an' known an* met along. I cannot say the things I feel,

And so I sing my evenin' song:

For to admire an for to see,

For to be' old this world so wide // never done no good to me.

But I can't drop it if I tried !