Page:The Seven Seas (Kipling, 1896).djvu/163

Rh Inopportune, shrill-accented,

The acrid Asiatic mirth

That leaves him, careless 'mid his dead,

The scandal of the elder earth.

How shall he clear himself, how reach

Your bar or weighed defence prefer?

A brother hedged with alien speech

And lacking all interpreter.

Which knowledge vexes him a space;

But, while Reproof around him rings,

He turns a keen untroubled face

Home, to the instant need of things.

Enslaved, illogical, elate,

He greets th' embarrassed Gods, nor fears

To shake the iron hand of Fate

Or match with Destiny for beers.

Lo, imperturbable he rules,

Unkempt, desreputable, vast—

And, in the teeth of all the schools,

I—I shall save him at the last!