Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/167

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INCLUSIVE EDITION, 1885-1918
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When we bought half-shares in a cheap 'un and hoisted a flag of our own.Patching and coaling on credit, and living the Lord knew how,We started the Red Ox freighters—we've eight-and-thirty now.And those were the days of clippers, and the freights were clipper-freights,And we knew we were making our fortune, but she died in Macassar Straits—By the Little Paternosters, as you come to the Union Bank—And we dropped her in fourteen fathom; I pricked it off where she sank.Owners we were, full owners, and the boat was christened for her,And she died in the Mary Gloster. My heart; how young we were!So I went on a spree round Java and well-nigh ran her ashore,But your mother came and warned me and I wouldn't liquor no more:Strict I stuck to my business, afraid to stop or I'd think,Saving the money (she warned me), and letting the other men drink.And I met M'Cullough in London (I'd saved five 'undred then),And 'tween us we started the Foundry—three forges and twenty men:Cheap repairs for the cheap 'uns. It paid, and the business grew,For I bought me a steam-lathe patent, and that was a gold mine too."Cheaper to build 'em than buy 'em," I said, but M'Cullough he shied,And we wasted a year in talking before we moved to the Clyde.And the Lines were all beginning, and we all of us started fair,Building our engines like houses and staying the boilers square.
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