Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/745

 INCLUSIVE EDITION, 1885-1918 727

"What are the stars before our eyes

That strike us well-nigh blind?" "Oh, that is just how things arise

According as you find."

" And why's our bed so hard to the bones

Excepting where it's cold?" "Oh, that's because it is precious stones

Excepting where 'tis gold.

"Think it over as you stand,

For I tell you without fail, If you haven't got into Fairyland

You're not in Lewes Gaol."

All night long they thought of it,

And, come the dawn, they saw They'd tumbled into a great old pit,

At the bottom of Minepit Shaw.

And the keeper's hound had followed 'em close,

And broke her neck in the fall; So they picked up their knives and their crossbows

And buried the dog. That's all.

But whether the man was a poacher too

Or a Pharisee 1 so bold I reckon there's more-things told than are true,

And more things true than are told!

HERIOT'S FORD

V"HAT'S that that hirples at my side?"

The Joe that you must fight, my lord. "That rides as fast as I can ride?" The shadow of your might, my lord.
 * A fairy.