Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/56

38 There's a speck on the hillside, a dot on the road—

A jingle of bells on the foot-path below—

There's a scuffle above in the monkey's abode—

The world is awake and the clouds are aglow.

For the great Sun himself must attend to the hail:—

"In the name of the Empress, the Overland Mail!"



DIVIDED DESTINIES

T WAS an artless Bandar and he danced upon a pine,

And much I wondered how he lived, and where the beast might dine,

And many many other things, till, o'er my morning smoke,

I slept the sleep of idleness and dreamt that Bandar spoke.

He said:—"O man of many clothes! Sad crawler on the Hills!

"Observe, I know not Ranken's shop, nor Ranken's monthly bills!

"I take no heed to trousers or the coats that you call dress;

"Nor am I plagued with little cards for little drinks at Mess.

"I steal the bunnia's grain at morn, at noon and eventide

"(For he is fat and I am spare), I roam the mountain side,

"I follow no man's carriage, and no, never in my life

"Have I flirted at Peliti's with another Bandar's wife.

"O man of futile fopperies—unnecessary wraps;

"I own no ponies in the hills, I drive no tallwheeled traps

"I buy me not twelve-button gloves, 'short-sixes' eke, or rings,

"Nor do I waste at Hamilton's my wealth on 'pretty things.'

"I quarrel with my wife at home, we never fight abroad;

"But Mrs. B. has grasped the fact I am her only lord.

"I never heard of fever—dumps nor debts depress my soul;

"And I pity and despise you!" Here he poached my breakfast-roll.

