Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/351

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OONTS

(NORTHERN INDIA TRANSPORT TRAIN)

Wot makes the soldier's 'eart to penk, wot makes him to perspire?
It isn't standin' up to charge nor lyin' down to fire:
But it's everlastin' waitin' on a everlastin' road
For the commissariat camel an' 'is commissariat load.
⁠O the oont,^[1] O the oont, O the commissariat oont!
⁠With 'is silly neck a-bobbin' like a basket full o' snakes;
⁠We packs 'im like an idol, an' you ought to 'ear 'im grunt,
⁠An' when we gets 'im loaded up 'is blessed girth-rope breaks.

Wot makes the rear-guard swear so 'ard when night is drorin' in,

An' every native follower is shiverin' for 'is skin?

↑ Camel—oo is pronounced like u in "bull," but by Mr. Atkins to rhyme with "front."

[1] Camel—oo is pronounced like u in "bull," but by Mr. Atkins to rhyme with "front."

[1]