Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/726

 708 RUDYARD KIPLING'S VERSE

Man goes to Man ! He is weeping in the Jungle :

He that was our Brother sorrows sore ! Man goes to Man ! (Oh, we loved him in the Jungle !)

To the Man-Trail where we may not follow more.

The Spring Running.

At the hole where he went in Red-Eye called to Wrinkle-Skin. Hear what little Red-Eye saith: "Nag, come up and dance with death!"

Eye to eye and head to head,

(Keep the measure, Nag.) This shall end when one is dead;

(At thy pleasure^ Nag.)

Turn for turn and twist for twist

(Run and hide thee, Nag.) Hah! The hooded Death has missed!

(Woe betide thee, Nag !)

" Rikki-Tikki-Tavi."

Oh! "hush thee, my baby, the night is behind us,

And black are the waters that sparkled so green. The moon, o'er the combers, looks downward to find us

At rest in the hollows that rustle between. Where billow meets billow, then soft be thy pillow;

Ah, weary wee flipperling, curl at thy ease! The storm shall not wake thee, nor shark overtake thee,

Asleep in the arms of the slow-swinging seas.

The White Seal.

You mustn't swim till you're six weeks old, Or your head will be sunk by your heels;

And summer gales and Killer Whales Are bad for baby seals.