Page:The Seven Seas (Kipling, 1896).djvu/123

Rh The good wife's sons come home again

With little into their hands,

But the lore of men that ha' dealt with men

In the new and naked lands;

But the faith of men that ha' brothered men

By more than easy breath,

And the eyes o' men that ha' read wi' men

In the open books of death.

Rich are they, rich in wonders seen,

But poor in the goods o' men;

So what they ha' got by the skin o' their teeth

They sell for their teeth again.

For whether they lose to the naked life

Or win to their hearts' desire,

They tell it all to the weary wife

That nods beside the fire.

Her hearth is wide to every wind

That makes the white ash spin;

And tide and tide and 'tween the tides

Her sons go out and in;