Page:The Seven Seas (Kipling, 1896).djvu/112

90 'For human life is chancy at any kind of trade,

'But most of all, as well you know, when the steers are mad-afraid;

'So you go back to the cattle-boats an' preach 'em as I've said.

'They must quit drinkin' an' swearin', they mustn't knife on a blow,

'They must quit gamblin' their wages, and you must preach it so;

'For now those boats are more like Hell than anything else I know.'

I didn't want to do it, for I knew what I should get,

An' I wanted to preach Religion, handsome an' out of the wet,

But the Word of the Lord were lain on me, an' I done what I was set.

I have been smit an' bruiséd, as warned would be the case,

An' turned my cheek to the smiter exactly as Scripture says;

But following that, I knocked him down an' led him up to Grace.