Departmental Ditties

From Departmental Ditties by Rudyard Kipling.

Departmental Ditties

by Rudyard Kipling

  I have eaten your bread and salt,

     I have drunk your water and wine,

  The deaths ye died I have watched beside,

     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.