Bee

ONE SELLS HIS RICE AT ANY PRICE. A paddy*-buyer, purse in hand, Comes to a store, and to a stand. " I want to buy some rice," says he, " A sample of it let me see." * Rice in the husk. The paddy-seller is not slow A little measiire-ful to show. The buyer asks, " Have you no more ? " The seller says, " This is the store : Pagodas one or ten will buy No other rice than now you spy." The neighbour pays pagodas ten, And says he 11 soon be here again. And back he comes, with bullock strong, To fetch his purchase before long, And, like a man of means and mirth, Demands his ten pagodas worth. The dealer brings the measure small, And says, " Pour out, and take it all." " This all for ten pagodas ! " cries The purchaser. The cheat replies, " For one or ten, I said before, This is the rice, and there s no more. Agreeing, ten you chose to pay, So take your bargain, and away." The jest no joke the good man feels, And to the judg...

**************************** Such! proud Bengala's King and court, Where chief and champions brave resort, With ladies happy, gay and free, As fishes in Bengala's sea! One beauty shone amid the throng, I mark'd her nose so fair and long, So fitted to her pretty pole, Like a nice toad-fish in its hole. One beauty small, amid the row, Did like the fair Sanangin show; None softer smil'd aid them all; Small was her mouth, her stature small, Her visage blended rose and pale, Her pregnant waist a swelling sail. Another's face look'd broad and bland, Like pamflet floundering on the sand Whene'er she turned her piercing stare, She seemed alert to spring in air. Two more I mark'd in black array, Like the salisdick dark were they; Their skins, their faces fair & red, And white the flesh beneath lay hid. These pretty fish, so blithe and brave, To see them frisking on the wave! Were I an angler in the sea, These fishes were the fish for me!! ****** Ibrahim...

The Ballad of East and West   Rudyard Kipling  (1865–1936)     O H,  East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet, Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat; But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth, When two strong men stand face to face, tho’ they come from the ends of the earth! Kamal is out with twenty men to raise the Border side,         5 And he has lifted the Colonel’s mare that is the Colonel’s pride: He has lifted her out of the stable-door between the dawn and the day, And turned the calkins upon her feet, and ridden her far away. Then up and spoke the Colonel’s son that led a troop of the Guides: “Is there never a man of all my men can say where Kamal hides?”         10 Then up and spoke Mahommed Khan, the son of the Ressaldar, “If ye know the track of the morning-mist, ye know where his pickets are. At dusk he harries the Abazai—at dawn he is into Bonair, But he must go by Fort Bukloh to his own place to fare,...

  A Rajput Love Song     (Parvati at her lattice) O Love! were you a basil-wreath to twine  among my tresses, A jewelled clasp of shining gold to bind around my sleeve, O Love! were you the keora's soul that haunts  my silken raiment, A bright, vermilion tassel in the girdles that I weave; O Love! were you the scented fan  that lies upon my pillow, A sandal lute, or silver lamp that burns before my shrine, Why should I fear the jealous dawn  that spreads with cruel laughter, Sad veils of separation between your face and mine? Haste, O wild-bee hours, to the gardens of the sun set! Fly, wild-parrot day, to the orchards of the west! Come, O tender night, with your sweet,  consoling darkness, And bring me my Beloved to the shelter of my breast! (Amar Singh in the saddle) O Love! were you the hooded hawk upon my hand  that flutters, Its collar-band of gleaming bells atinkle as I ride, O Love! were you a turban-spray or  floating heron-feather, The radiant, swift, unconquered sword  tha...