Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/19

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ARMY HEAD-QUARTERS

Old is the song that I sing—
Old as my unpaid bills—
Old as the chicken that
kitmutgars bring
Men at dâk-bungalows—old as the Hills
.

Ahasuerus Jenkins of the "Operatic Own,"
Was dowered with a tenor voice of super-Santley-tone.
His views on equitation were, perhaps, a trifle queer;
He had no seat worth mentioning, but oh! he had an ear.


He clubbed his wretched company a dozen times a day,
He used to leave his charger in a parabolic way,
His method of saluting was the joy of all beholders,
But Ahasuerus Jenkins had a head upon his shoulders.


He took two months at Simla when the year was at the spring.

And underneath the deodars eternally did sing.

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