Page:Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads (1892).djvu/180

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BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS
It ain’t the chanst o’ being rushed by Paythans from the ’ills,
It’s the commissariat camel puttin’ on ’is bloomin’ frills!
   O the oont, O the oont, O the hairy scary oont!
    A-trippin’ over tent-ropes when we’ve got the night alarm!
   We socks ’im with a stretcher-pole an’ ’eads im off in front,
    An’ when we’ve saved ’is bloomin’ life ’e chaws our bloomin’ arm.

The ’orse ’e knows above a bit, the bullock’s but a fool,
The elephant’s a gentleman, the battery-mule’s a mule;
But the commissariat cam-u-el, when all is said an’ done,
’E’s a devil an’ a ostrich an’ a orphan-child in one.
   O the oont, O the oont, O the Gawd-forsaken oont!
    The lumpy-’umpy ’ummin’-bird a-singin’ where’e lies,