Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/665

 INCLUSIVE EDITION, 1885-1918 647

So I'm off with wallet and staff to eat The bread that is three parts chaff to wheat, But glory be! there's a laugh to it, Which isn't the case when we dine.

My father glooms and advises me, My brother sulks and despises me, And Mother catechises me Till I want to go out and swear. And, in spite of the butler's gravity, I know that the servants have it I Am a monster of moral depravity, And I'm damned if I think it's fair!

I wasted my substance, I know I did,

On riotous living, so I did,

But there's nothing on record to show I did

More than my betters have done.

They talk of the money I spent out there

They hint at the pace that I went out there

But they all forget I was sent out there

Alone as a rich man's son.

So I was a mark for plunder at once,

And lost my cash (can you wonder?) at once,

But I didn't give up and knock under at once,

I worked in the Yards, for a spell,

Where I spent my nights and my days with hogs,

And shared their milk and maize with hogs,

Till, I guess, I have learned what pays with hogs

And I have that knowledge to sell!

So back I go to my job again, Not so easy to rob again, Or quite so ready to sob again On any neck that's around.