Page:The Seven Seas (Kipling, 1896).djvu/214

192 'Taught me the gipsy-folks' bolee ;

Kind o' volcano she were,

For she knifed me one night 'cause I wished she was white,

And I learned about women from 'er!

Then I come 'ome in the trooper,

'Long of a kid o' sixteen—

Girl from a convent at Meerut,

The straightest I ever 'ave seen.

Love at first sight was 'er trouble,

She didn't know what it were;

An' I wouldn't do such, 'cause I liked 'er too much,

But—I learned about women from 'er!

I 've taken my fun where I've found it,

An' now I must pay for my fun,

For the more you 'ave known o' the others

The less will you settle to one;