This page has been validated.
220
BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS
For it was 'Right flank—wheel!' for ''Alt, an' stand at ease!'
An' 'Left extend!' for 'Centre close!' O marker, shut your eye!
An' it was, ''Ere, sir, 'ere! before the Colonel sees!'
So he needed affidavits pretty badly by-an'-by.
There was two-an'-thirty sergeants,
There was corp'rals forty-one,
There was just nine 'undred rank an' file
To swear to a touch o' sun.
There was me 'e 'd kissed in the sentry-box,
As I 'ave not told in my song,
But I took my oath, which were Bible truth,
I 'adn't seen nothin' wrong.
There's them that's 'ot an' 'aughty,
There's them that's cold an' 'ard,
But there comes a night when the best gets tight,
