Rudyard Kipling

The Story of Uriah

     “Now there were two men in one city; 
     the one rich and the other poor.”

Jack Barrett went to Quetta
   	Because they told him to.
He left his wife at Simla
   	On three-fourths his monthly screw:
Jack Barrett died at Quetta
   	Ere the next month’s pay he drew.

Jack Barrett went to Quetta.
   	He didn’t understand
The reason of his transfer
   	From the pleasant mountain-land:
The season was September,
   	And it killed him out of hand.

Jack Barrett went to Quetta,
   	And there gave up the ghost,
Attempting two men’s duty
 	In that very healthy post;
And Mrs. Barrett mourned for him
   	Five lively months at most.

Jack Barrett’s bones at Quetta
   	Enjoy profound repose;
But I shouldn’t be astonished
   	If now his spirit knows
The reason of his transfer
   	From the Himalayan snows.

And, when the Last Great Bugle Call
   	Adown the Hurnal throbs,
When the last grim joke is entered
   	In the big black Book of Jobs,
And Quetta graveyards give again
   	Their victims to the air,
I shouldn’t like to be the man
   	Who sent Jack Barrett there.