RUDYARD KIPLING

The days are sick and cold, and the skies are gray and old,

And the twice-breathed airs blow damp; And Fd sell my tired soul for the bucking beam-sea roll

Of a black Bilbao tramp ; With her load-line over her hatch, dear lass, And a drunken Dago crew, And her nose held down on the old trail, our own trail,

the out trail,

From Cadiz Bar on the Long Trail the trail that is always new.

There be triple ways to take, of the eagle or the snake,

Or the way of a man with a maid ; But the sweetest way to me is a ship's upon the sea

In the heel of the North-East Trade. Can you hear the crash on her bows, dear lass, And the drum of the racing screw, As she ships it green on the old trail, our own trail, the

out trail,

As she lifts and 'scends on the Long Trail the trail that is always new ?

See the shaking funnels roar, with the Peter at the fore,

And the fenders grind and heave, And the derricks clack and grate, as the tackle hooks

the crate,

And the fall-rope whines through the sheave; It 's ' Gang-plank up and in,' dear lass, It 's * Hawsers warp her through ! ' And it's 'All clear aft' on the old trail, our own trail,

the out trail,

We're backing down on the Long Trail the trail that is always new.

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