Page:The Seven Seas (Kipling, 1896).djvu/64

42 Ye know how hard an Idol dies, an' what that meant to me—

E'en tak' it for a sacrifice acceptable to Thee. . ..

''Below there! Oiler! What's your wark? Ye find it runnin' hard?''

Ye needn't swill the cap wi' oil—this isn't the Cunard!

''Ye thought? Ye are not paid to think. Go, sweat that off again!''

Tck! Tck! It's deeficult to sweer nor tak' The Name in vain!

Men, ay an' women, call me stern. Wi' these to oversee

Ye'll note I've little time to burn on social repartee.

The bairns see what their elders miss; they'll hunt me to an' fro,

Till for the sake of—well, a kiss—I tak' 'em down below.

That minds me of our Viscount loon—Sir Kenneth's kin—the chap

Wi' Russia leather tennis-shoon an' spar-decked yachtin'-cap.

I showed him round last week, o'er all—an' at the last says he:

'Mister M'Andrews, don't you think steam spoils romance at sea?'