“The docthor touched the long black hair av her head ['twas all loose
upon Love-o'-Women's chest), an' that cleared the liquor out av him. He
stud considherin' a long time, his hands in his pockets, an' at last
he sez to me, 'Here's a double death from naturil causes, most naturil
causes; an' in the presint state av affairs the rig'mint will be
thankful for wan grave the less to dig. Issiwasti,' he sez, 'Issiwasti,
Privit Mulvaney, these two will be buried together in the Civil Cemet'ry
at my expinse, an' may the good God,' he sez, 'make it SO much for me
whin my time comes. Go to your wife,' he sez; 'go an' be happy. I'll see
to this all.'
“I left him still considherin'. They was buried in the Civil Cemet'ry
together, wid a Church of England service. There was too many buryin's
thin to ask questions, an' the docthor--he ran away wid Major--Major Van
Dyce's lady that year--he saw to ut all. Fwhat the right an' the wrong
av Love-o'-Women an' Di'monds-an'-Pearls was I niver knew, an' I will
niver know; but I've tould ut as I came acrost ut--here an' there in
little pieces. So, being fwhat I am, an' knowin' fwhat I know, that's
fwhy I say in this shootin'-case here, Mackie that's dead an' in hell is
the lucky man. There are times, Sorr, whin 'tis betther for the man to
die than to live, an' by consequince forty million times betther for the
woman.”
“H'up there!” said Ortheris. “It's time to go.” The witnesses and guard
formed up in the thick white dust of the parched twilight and swung off,
marching easy and whistling. Down the road to the green by the church
I could hear Ortheris, the black Book-lie still uncleansed on his
lips, setting, with a fine sense of the fitness of things, the shrill
quick-step that runs--
“Oh, do not despise the advice of the wise,
Learn wisdom from those that are older,
And don't try for things that are out of your reach--
An' that's what the Girl told the Soldier
Soldier! Soldier!
Oh, that's what the Girl told the Soldier!”
THE BIG DRUNK DRAF'
We're goin' 'ome, we're goin' 'ome--
Our ship is at the shore,
An' you mus' pack your 'aversack,
For we won't come back no more.
Ho, don't you grieve for me,
My lovely Mary Ann,
For I'll marry you yet on a fourp'ny bit,
As a time-expired ma-a-an
Barrack Room Ballad.
AN awful thing has happened! My friend, Private Mulvaney, who went home
in the Serapis, time-expired, not very long ago, has come back to India
as a civilian! It was all Dinah Shadd's fault. She could not stand the
poky little lodgings, and she missed her servant Abdullah more than
words could tell. The fact was that the Mulvaneys had been out here too
long, and had lost touch of England.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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