Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/638

 620 RUDYARD KIPLING'S VERSE

Twix' the Lizard and Dover,

We hand our stuff over,

Though I may not inform how we do it, nor when.

But a light on each quarter

Low down on the water

Is well understanded by poor honest men.

Even then we have dangers,

From meddlesome strangers,

Who spy on our business and are not content

To take a smooth answer,

Except with a handspike. ..

And they say they are murdered by poor honest men !

To be drowned or be shot

Is our natural lot,

W 7 hy should we, moreover, be hanged in the end

After all our great pains

For to dangle in chains

As though we were smugglers, not poor honest men ?

"WHEN THE GREAT ARK"

fHEN the Great Ark, in Vigo Bay,

Rode stately through the half-manned fleet, From every ship about her way

She heard the mariners entreat "Before we take the seas again Let down your boats and send us men!

"We have no lack of victual here

With work God knows! enough for all,

To hand and reef and watch and steer, Because our present strength is small.

While your three decks are crowded so

Your crews can scarcely stand or go.