Prelude To Departmental Ditties And Other Verses

by Rudyard Kipling

　　

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I have eaten your bread and salt, I have drunk your water and wine, The deaths ye died I have watched be-side, And the lives that ye led were mine. Was there aught that I did not share In vigil or toil or ease, One joy or woe that I did not know, Dear hearts across the seas? I have written the tale of our life For a sheltered people’s mirth, In jesting guise, but ye are wise, And ye know what the jest is worth.

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