Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/560

 542 RUDYARD KIPLING'S VERSE

There was some silly fire on the flank

And the small wet drizzling down There were the sold-out shops and the bank

And the wet, wide-open town; And we were doing escort-duty

To somebody's baggage-train, And I smelt wattle by Lichtenberg

Riding in, in the rain.

It was all Australia to me

All I had found or missed: Every face I was crazy to see,

And every woman I'd kissed: All that I should n't ha' done, God knows!

(As He knows I'll do it again), That smell of the wattle round Litchtenberg,

Riding in, in the rain!

And I saw Sydney the same as ever,

The picnics and brass-bands; And my little homestead on Hunter River

And my new vines joining hands. It all came over me in one act

Quick as a shot through the brain With the smell of the wattle round Lichtenberg,

Riding in, in the rain.

I have forgotten a hundred fights,

But one I shall not forget With the raindrops bunging up my sights

And my eyes bunged up with wet; And through the crack and the stink of the cordite

(Ah Christ! My country again!) The smell of the wattle by Lichtenberg,

Riding in, in the rain!