And some of us have fought for you
Already in the Afghan pass,

Or where the scarce-seen smoke-puffs flew
From Boer marksmen in the grass.

And all are bred to do your will
By land and sea, wherever flies
The Flag, to fight and follow still
And work your Empire's destinies.

Once more we greet you, though unseen Our greeting be and coming slow, Trust us if need arise, O Queen,

We shall not tarry with the blow.

DEPARTMENTAL DITTIES

(1885-1887)

I

PRELUDE

HAVE eaten your bread and salt,

I have drunk your water and wine,

The deaths ye died I have watched beside,
And the lives that ye led were mine.

Was there aught that I did not share
In vigil or toil or ease,-

One joy or woe that I did not know,
Dear hearts across the seas?

I have written the tale of our life
For a sheltered people's mirth,
In jesting guise-but ye are wise,
And ye know what the jest is worth.

GENERAL SUMMARY

WR

E are very slightly changed
From the semi-apes who ranged
India's prehistoric clay.

He who drew the longest bow
Ran his brother down, you know,
As we run men down to-day.

'Dowb,' the first of all his race,
Met the Mammoth face to face
On the lake or in the cave,
Stole the steadiest canoe,
Ate the quarry others slew,

Died-and took the finest grave.

When they scratched the reindeer-bone,
Some one made the sketch his own,
Filched it from the artist-then,
Even in those early days,

Won a simple Viceroy's praise

Through the toil of other men.

Ere they hewed the Sphinx's visage
Favouritism governed kissage,

Even as it does in this age.

Who shall doubt 'the secret hid

Under Cheops' pyramid'

Was that the contractor did

Cheops out of several millions?

Or that Joseph's sudden rise
To Comptroller of Supplies
Was a fraud of monstrous size

On King Pharaoh's swart Civilians?

Thus, the artless songs I sing
Do not deal with anything
New or never said before.
As it was in the beginning
Is to-day official sinning,
And shall be for evermorei