Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/367

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BELTS
183

That drew them like a hornet's nest—we met them good an' large,
The English at the double an' the Irish at the charge.
Then it was: Belts—


There was a row in Silver Street—an' I was in it too;
We passed the time o' day, an' then the belts went whirraru!
I misremember what occurred, but subsequint the storm
A Freeman's Journal Supplemint was all my uniform.
O it was: Belts—


There was a row in Silver Street—they sent the Polis there,
The English were too drunk to know, the Irish didn't care;
But when they grew impertinint we simultaneous rose,
Till half o' them was Liffey mud an' half was tatthered clo'es.
For it was: Belts—