We may ’ave took it yonder in the Low Bush-veldt that sends men stragglin’ unaware Among the Kaffirs, till their columns go, An’ they are left past call or count or care. We might ’ave been your lovers long ago, ’Usbands or children--comfort or despair. Our death (an’ burial) settles all we owe, An’ why we done it is our own affair. Marry again, and we will not say no, Nor come to bastardise the kids you bear: Wait on in ’ope--you’ve all your life below Before you’ll ever ’ear us on the stair. There is no need to give our reasons, though Gawd knows we all ’ad reasons which were fair; But other people might not judge ’em so, And now it doesn’t matter what they were. What man can size or weigh another’s woe? There are some things too bitter ’ard to bear. Suffice it we ’ave finished--Domino! As we can testify, for we are there, In the side-world where ‘wilful-missings’ go. UBIQUE [Page 113] There is a word you often see, pronounce it as you may-- ‘You bike,’ ‘you bykwe,’ ‘ubbikwe’--alludin’ to R.A. It serves ’Orse, Field, an’ Garrison as motto for a crest, An’ when you’ve found out all it means I’ll tell you ’alf the rest. Ubique means the long-range Krupp be’ind the low-range ’ill-- Ubique means you’ll pick it up an’ while you do stand still. Ubique means you’ve caught the flash an’ timed it by the sound. Ubique means five gunners’ ’ash before you’ve loosed a round. Ubique means Blue Fuse, an’ make the ’ole to sink the trail. Ubique means stand up an’ take the Mauser’s ’alf-mile ’ail. Ubique means the crazy team not God nor man can ’old. Ubique means that ’orse’s scream which turns your innards cold! Ubique means ‘Bank, ’Olborn, Bank--a penny all the way’-- The soothin’, jingle-bump-an’-clank from day to peaceful day. Ubique means ‘They’ve caught De Wet, an’ now we shan’t be long.’ Ubique means ‘I much regret, the beggar’s goin’ strong!’ Ubique means the tearin’ drift where, breech-blocks jammed with mud, The khaki muzzles duck an’ lift across the khaki flood. Ubique means the dancing plain that changes rocks to Boers. Ubique means mirage again an’ shellin’ all outdoors. Ubique means ‘Entrain at once for Grootdefeatfontein’! Ubique means ‘Off-load your guns’--at midnight in the rain! Ubique means ‘More mounted men. Return all guns to store.’ Ubique means the R.A.M.R. Infantillery Corps! Ubique means that warnin’ grunt the perished linesman knows, When o’er ’is strung an’ sufferin’ front the shrapnel sprays ’is foes; An’ as their firin’ dies away the ’usky whisper runs From lips that ’aven’t drunk all day: ‘The Guns! Thank Gawd, the Guns!’ Extreme, depressed, point-blank or short, end-first or any’ow, From Colesberg Kop to Quagga’s Poort--from Ninety-Nine till now-- By what I’ve ’eard the others tell an’ I in spots ’ave seen, There’s nothin’ this side ’Eaven or ’Ell Ubique doesn’t mean!