Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/549

 INCLUSIVE EDITION, 1885-1918 531

"What are our orders an' where do we lay?"

(Time, an 'igh time to be trekkin' again /) "You came after dark you will leave before day,

" You section, you pompom, you six 'undred men /"

Down the tin street, 'alf awake an' unfed, 'Ark to 'em blessin' the Gen'ral in bed!

Now by the church an' the outspan they wind Over the ridge an' it's all lef' be'ind For the section, etc.

Soon they will camp as the dawn's growin' grey, Roll up for coffee an* sleep while they may The section, etc.

Read their 'ome letters, their papers an' such, For they'll move after dark to astonish the Dutch With a section, etc.

'Untin' for shade as the long hours pass Blankets on rifles or burrows in grass, Lies the section, etc.

Dossin' or beatin' a shirt in the sun, Watching chameleons or cleanin' a gun, Waits the section, etc.

With nothin' but stillness as far as you please, An' the silly mirage stringin' islands an' seas Round the section, etc.

So they strips off their hide an' they grills in their bones, Till the shadows crawl out from beneath the pore stones Towards the section, etc.