Part 13 (2/2)

And after--ask the Yusufzaies What comes of all our 'ologies.

A scrimmage in a Border Station-- A canter down some dark defile-- Two thousand pounds of education Drops to a ten-rupee jezail-- The Crammer's boast, the Squadron's pride, Shot like a rabbit in a ride!

No proposition Euclid wrote, No formulae the text-books know, Will turn the bullet from your coat, Or ward the tulwar's downward blow Strike hard who cares--shoot straight who can-- The odds are on the cheaper man.

One sword-knot stolen from the camp Will pay for all the school expenses Of any Kurrum Valley scamp Who knows no word of moods and tenses, But, being blessed with perfect sight, Picks off our messmates left and right.

With home-bred hordes the hillsides teem, The troop-s.h.i.+ps bring us one by one, At vast expense of time and steam, To slay Afridis where they run.

The ”captives of our bow and spear”

Are cheap--alas! as we are dear.

THE BETROTHED

”You must choose between me and your cigar.”

--BREACH OF PROMISE CASE, CIRCA 1885.

Open the old cigar-box, get me a Cuba stout, For things are running crossways, and Maggie and I are out.

We quarrelled about Havanas--we fought o'er a good cheroot, And I knew she is exacting, and she says I am a brute.

Open the old cigar-box--let me consider a s.p.a.ce; In the soft blue veil of the vapour musing on Maggie's face.

Maggie is pretty to look at--Maggie's a loving la.s.s, But the prettiest cheeks must wrinkle, the truest of loves must pa.s.s.

There's peace in a Larranaga, there's calm in a Henry Clay; But the best cigar in an hour is finished and thrown away--

Thrown away for another as perfect and ripe and brown-- But I could not throw away Maggie for fear o' the talk o' the town!

Maggie, my wife at fifty--grey and dour and old-- With never another Maggie to purchase for love or gold!

And the light of Days that have Been the dark of the Days that Are, And Love's torch stinking and stale, like the b.u.t.t of a dead cigar--

The b.u.t.t of a dead cigar you are bound to keep in your pocket-- With never a new one to light tho' it's charred and black to the socket!

Open the old cigar-box--let me consider a while.

Here is a mild Manila--there is a wifely smile.

Which is the better portion--bondage bought with a ring, Or a harem of dusky beauties, fifty tied in a string?

Counsellors cunning and silent--comforters true and tried, And never a one of the fifty to sneer at a rival bride?

Thought in the early morning, solace in time of woes, Peace in the hush of the twilight, balm ere my eyelids close,

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