Page:Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads (1892).djvu/160

  The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
  O it’s ‘Thin red line of ’eroes’ when the drums begin to roll.

We aren’t no thin red ’eroes, nor we aren’t no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An’ if sometimes our conduck isn’t all your fancy paints:
Why, single men in barricks don’t grow into plaster saints;

  While it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ ‘Tommy, fall be’ind,’
  But it’s ‘Please to walk in front, sir,’ when there’s trouble in the wind,
  There’s trouble in the wind, my boys, there’s trouble in the wind,
  O it’s ‘Please to walk in front, sir,’ when there’s trouble in the wind.

You talk o’ better food for us, an’ schools, an’ fires, an’ all:
We'll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.