FOR TO ADMIRE. THE Injian Ocean sets an' smiles The Lascar sings, "Hum deckty hai ! ''* For to admire an' for to see, For to be'old this world so wide It never done no good to me, But I can't drop it if I tried ! I see the sergeants pitchin' quoits, I spy upon the quarter-deck The officers an' lydies walk. * "I'm looking out." I thinks about the things that was, An' leans an' looks acrost the sea, Till, spite of all the crowded ship, There's no one lef' alive but me. The things that was which I'ave seen, An' sometimes wonders if they're true; Oh, I'ave come upon the books, I paid my price for findin' out, Nor never grutched the price I paid, But sat in Clink without my boots, Admirin' 'ow the world was made. Be'old a cloud upon the beam, An' 'umped above the sea appears Old Aden, like a barrick-stove That no one's lit for years an' years! I passed by that when I began, An' I go 'ome the road I came, A time-expired soldier-man With six years' service to 'is name. My girl she said, "Oh, stay with me!" My mother 'eld me to 'er breast. They've never written none, an' so They must 'ave gone with all the restWith all the rest which I 'ave seen An' found an' known an' met along. I cannot say the things I feel, But still I sing my evenin' song: For to admire an' for to see, For to be'old this world so wide It never done no good to me, But I can't drop it if I tried! -L'ENVOI WHEN Earth's last picture is painted, and the tubes are twisted and dried, When the oldest colours have faded, and the youngest critic has died, We shall rest, and, faith, we shall need it-lie down for an æon or two, Till the Master of All Good Workmen shall set us to work anew! And those that were good shall be happy: they shall sit in a golden chair; They shall splash at a ten-league canvas with brushes of comets' hair; They shall find real saints to draw from-Magdalene, Peter, and Paul; They shall work for an age at a sitting and never be tired at all! |