e bill;--
'Despatched on this date, as received by the rail,
'_Per_ runner, two bags of the Overland Mail.'

Is the torrent in spate? He must ford it or swim.
Has the rain wrecked the road? He must climb by the cliff.
Does the tempest cry 'halt'? What are tempests to him?
The service admits not a 'but' or an 'if.'
While the breath's in his mouth, he must bear without fail,
In the Name of the Empress, the Overland Mail.

From aloe to rose-oak, from rose-oak to fir,
From level to upland, from upland to crest,
From rice-field to rock-ridge, from rock-ridge to spur,
Fly the soft-sandalled feet, strains the brawny brown chest.
From rail to ravine--to the peak from the vale--
Up, up through the night goes the Overland Mail.

There's a speck on the hill-side, a dot on the road--
A jingle of bells on the foot-path below--
There's a scuffle above in the monkey's abode--
The world is awake and the clouds are aglow.
For the great Sun himself must attend to the hail:
--'In the Name of the Empress, the Overland Mail!'

IN SPRING TIME

My garden blazes brightly with the rose-bush and the peach,
And the _koeil_ sings above it, in the _siris_ by the well,
From the creeper-covered trellis comes the squirrel's chattering
speech,
And the blue jay screams and flutters where the cheery _satbhai_
dwell.
But the rose has lost its fragrance, and the _koeil's_ note is
strange;
I am sick of endless sunshine, sick of blossom-burdened bough.
Give me back the leafless woodlands where the winds of Springtime
range--
Give me back one day in England, for it's Spring in England now!
Through the pines the gusts are booming, o'er the brown fields
blowing chill,
From the furrow of the plough-share streams the fragrance of the
loam,
And the hawk nests on the cliffside and the jackdaw in the hill,
And my heart is back in England 'mid the sights and sounds of Home.
But the garland of the sacrifice this wealth of rose and peach is,
Ah! _koeil_, little _koeil_, singing on the _siris_ bough,
In my ears the knell of exile your ceaseless bell-like speech is--
Can _you_ tell me aught of England or of Spring in England now?

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD.
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, GLASGOW.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Kipling Reader, by Rudyard Kipling

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