Departmental Ditties and Barrack Room Ballads

DEPARTMENTAL DITTIES

  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.