Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/727

 INCLUSIVE EDITION, 1885-1918 709

Are bad for baby seals, dear rat.

As bad as bad can be; But splash and grow strong, And you can't be wrong,

Child of the Open Sea!

The White Seal.

I will remember what I was, I am sick of rope and chain I will remember my old strength and all my forest-affairs.

I will not sell my back to man for a bundle of sugar-cane. I will go out to my own kind, and the wood-folk in their lairs.

I will go out until the day, until the morning break,

Out to the winds' untainted kiss, the waters' clean caress.

I will forget my ankle-ring and snap my picket-stake. I will revisit my lost loves, and playmates masterless!

Toomai of the Elephants.

The People of the Eastern Ice, they are melting like the

snow They beg for coffee and sugar; they go where the white men

g-

The People of the Western Ice, they learn to steal and fight; They sell their furs to the trading-post; they sell their souls

to the white. The People of the Southern Ice, they trade with the whaler's

crew; Their women have many ribbons, but their tents are torn

and few. But the People of the Elder Ice, beyond the white man's

ken Their spears are made of the narwhal-horn, and they are the

last of the Men !

Quiquern.