Page:The Seven Seas (Kipling, 1896).djvu/67

Rh Oh for a man to weld it then, in one trip-hammer strain,

Till even first-class passengers could tell the meanin' plain!

But no one cares except mysel' that serve an' understand

My seven thousand horse-power here. Eh, Lord! They're grand—they're grand!

Uplift am I? When first in store the new-made beasties stood,

Were Ye cast down that breathed the Word declarin' all things good?

Not so! O' that warld-liftin' joy no after-fall could vex,

Ye've left a glimmer still to cheer the Man—the Arrtifex!

That holds, in spite o' knock and scale, o' friction, waste an' slip,

An' by that light—now, mark my word—we'll build the Perfect Ship.

I'll never last to judge her lines or take her curve—not I.

But I ha' lived an' I ha' worked. 'Be thanks to Thee, Most High!