I have eaten your bread and salt. <br />I have drunk your water and wine. <br />In deaths ye died I have watched beside, <br />And the lives ye led were mine. <br /> <br />Was there aught that I did not share <br />In vigil or toil or ease, -- <br />One joy or woe that I did not know, <br />Dear hearts across the seas? <br /> <br />I have written the tale of our life <br />For a sheltered people's mirth, <br />In jesting guise -- but ye are wise, <br />And ye know what the jest is worth.<br /><br />Rudyard Kipling<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/prelude-7/
