This page has been validated.
84
THE FIVE NATIONS

Translated by a stick (which is really half the trick),
And Pharaoh harked to Sergeant Whatisname.


(There were years that no one talked of; there were times of horrid doubt—
There was faith and hope and whacking and despair—
While the Sergeant gave the Cautions and he combed old Pharaoh out,
And England didn't seem to know nor care.
That is England's awful way o' doing business—
She would serve, her God or Gordon just the same—
For she thinks her Empire still is the Strand and Holborn Hill,
And she didn't think of Sergeant Whatisname.)


Said England to the Sergeant, "You can let my people go!"

(England used 'em cheap and nasty from the start),