Ho! get away you bullock-man, you've 'eard the bugle blowed,

There's a regiment a-comin' down the Grand Trunk Road; With its best foot first

And the road a-sliding past,

An' every bloomin' campin'-ground exactly like the last;

While the Big Drum says,

With 'is" rowdy-dowdy-dow!"—

"Kiko kissywarsti don't you hamsher argy jow?"

SHILLIN' A DAY

My name is O'Kelly, I've heard the Revelly

From Birr to Bareilly, from Leeds to Lahore,

Hong-Kong and Peshawur,

Lucknow and Etawah,

And fifty-five more all endin' in "pore."

Black Death and his quickness, the depth and the thickness, Of sorrow and sickness I've known on my way,

But I'm old and I'm nervis,

I'm cast from the Service,

And all I deserve is a shillin' a day.

(Chorus) Shillin' a day,

Bloomin' good pay

Lucky to touch it, a shillin' a day!

Oh, it drives me half crazy to think of the days I
Went slap for the Ghazi, my sword at my side,
When we rode Hell-for-leather

Both squadrons together,

That didn't care whether we lived or we died.

But it's no use despairin', my wife must go charin'

An' me commissairin' the pay-bills to better,

By the Grand Metropold won't you give me a letter?

(Full chorus)

Give 'im a letter

'Can't do no better,

Late Troop-Sergeant-Major an'
a letter!

Think what 'e 's been,

Think what 'e 's seen.

Think of his pension an'

GAWD SAVE THE QUEEN!

runs with

BARRACK ROOM BALLADS

II

GENERAL

1892-1896

When 'Omer smote 'is bloomin' lyre,
He'd 'eard men sing by land an' sea;
An' what he thought 'e might require,
'E went an' took the same as me!

The market-girls an' fishermen,

The shepherds an' the sailors, too, They 'eard old songs turn up again, But kep' it quiet - same as you!

They knew 'e stole; 'e knew they knowed. They didn't tell, nor make a fuss, But winked at 'Omer down the road,

An' 'e winked back the same as us!