Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/737

Rh Then up and spoke the plumbyers bold,

Which was laying the pipes for the hot and cold;

"Since you with us have made so free,

Will you kindly say what your name might be?"

The young man kindly answered them;

"It might be Lot or Methusalem,

Or it might be Moses (a man I hate)

Whereas it is Pharaoh surnamed the Great.

"Your glazing is new and your plumbing's strange,

But otherwise I perceive no change;

And in less than a month if you do as I bid

I'd learn you to build me a Pyramid!"

I tell this tale, which is stricter true,

Just by way of convincing you

How very little, since things was made,

Things have altered in the shipwright's trade.

In Blackwall Basin yesterday

A China barque re-fitting lay;

When a fat old man with snow-white hair

Came up to watch us working there.

Now there wasn't a knot which the riggers knew

But the old man made it—and better too;

Nor there wasn't a sheet, or a lift, or a brace,

But the old man knew its lead and place.

Then up and spoke the caulkyers bold,

Which was packing the pump in the afterhold:

"Since you with us have made so free,

Will you kindly tell what your name might be?"