It was a misdirected wire, Her husband was at Shaitanpore. Through six thin foreign sheets or more, Then Belial Machiavelli saw Her error and, I trust, his own, There was a scene-a weep or two- Is very sad, but so it is. This THE BALLAD OF FISHER'S BOARDING-HOUSE That night, when through the mooring-chains The wide-eyed corpse rolled free, To blunder down by Garden Reach And rot at Kedgeree, The tale the Hughli told the shoal The lean shoal told to me. "TWAS Fultah Fisher's boarding-house, Where sailor-men reside, And there were men of all the From Mississip to Clyde, ports And regally they spat and smoked, They lied about the purple Sea That gave them scanty bread, For they had looked too often on They told their tales of wreck and wrong, They backed their toughest statements with And crackling oaths went to and fro And there was Hans the blue-eyed Dane, Who carried on his hairy chest. The maid Ultruda's charmThe little silver crucifix That keeps a man from harm. And there was Jake Without-the-Ears, And Pamba the Malay, And Carboy Gin the Guinea cook, And Luz from Vigo Bay, And Honest Jack who sold them slops And there was Salem Hardieker, A lean Bostonian he— Russ, German, English, Halfbreed, Finn, Yank, Dane, and Portuguee, At Fultah Fisher's boarding-house They rested from the sea. Now Anne of Austria shared their drinks, To Jaun Bazaar she came, She held a dozen men to heel- In hose and gown and ring and chain, From twenty mariners, And, by Port Law, that week, men called Her Salem Hardieker's. But seamen learnt-what landsmen knowThat neither gifts nor gain Can hold a winking Light o' Love Or Fancy's flight restrain, When Anne of Austria rolled her eyes On Hans the blue-eyed Dane. Since Life is strife, and strife means knife, From Howrah to the Bay, And he may die before the dawn But cold was Hans the blue-eyed Dane, And laughter shook the chest beneath The little silver crucifix That keeps a man from harm. "You speak to Salem Hardieker; When love rejected turns to hate, "You speak to Salem Hardieker" She spoke as woman can. A scream-a sob-"He called me-names!" And then the fray began. An oath from Salem Hardieker, A dance of shadows on the wall, And Hans came down, as cattle drop, In Anne of Austria's trembling hands "I ship mineselfs to-morrow, straight "Und there Ultruda comes to me "At Easter, und I go "South, down the Cattegat-What's here? "There-are-no-lights-to-guide!” The mutter ceased, the spirit passed, And Anne of Austria cried When Hans the mighty died. Thus slew they Hans the blue-eyed Dane, But Anne of Austria looted first The maid Ultruda's charmThe little silver crucifix That keeps a man from harm. POSSIBILITIES AY, LAY him 'neath the Simla pine- His place forgets him; other men. Whence he shall hear, as spirits may, Benmore shall woo him to the ball With lighted rooms and braying band; And he shall hear and understand "Dream Faces" better than us all. For, think you, as the vapours flee |