Puck of Pook's Hill

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by Rudyard Kipling


  SMUGGLERS' SONG

  _If you wake at midnight, and hear a horse's feet,_ _Don't go drawing back the blind, or looking in the street,_ _Them that asks no questions isn't told a lie._ _Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!_

  _Five and twenty ponies_ _Trotting through the dark;_ _Brandy for the Parson,_ _'Baccy for the Clerk_ _Laces for a lady, letters for a spy,_

  _And watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!_

  _Running round the woodlump if you chance to find_ _Little barrels, roped and tarred, all full of brandywined;_ _Don't you shout to come and look, nor take 'em for your play;_ _Put the brishwood back again,--and they'll be gone next day!_

  _If you see the stableyard setting open wide;_ _If you see a tied horse lying down inside;_ _If your mother mends a coat cut about and tore;_ _If the lining's wet and warm--don't you ask no more!_

  _If you meet King George's men, dressed in blue and red,_ _You be careful what you say, and mindful what is said._ _If they call you 'pretty maid,' and chuck you 'neath the chin,_ _Don't you tell where no one is, nor yet where no one's been!_

  _Knocks and footsteps round the house--whistles after dark--_ _You've no call for running out till the house-dogs bark._ Trusty's _here, and_ Pincher's _here, and see how dumb they lie--_ _They don't fret to follow when the Gentlemen go by!_

  _If you do as you've been told, likely there's a chance,_ _You'll be give a dainty doll, all the way from France,_ _With a cap of Valenciennes, and a velvet hood--_ _A present from the Gentlemen, along o' being good!_

  _Five and twenty ponies,_ _Trotting through the Park--_ _Brandy for the Parson,_ _'Baccy for the Clerk._

  _Them that asks no questions isn't told a lie._ _Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!_

  'DYMCHURCH FLIT'

 

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