150 SAM DARLING'S REMINISCENCES 



Wings to save from scenes that bore us, 



Wings which gratitude have won, 

 For they waft us far from Hoi-us — 



Thanks to Thomas Cook and Son. 

 Egypt, Egypt ! — Land of ages — 



Long may you and yours be blest ! 

 But I leave you to the sages, 



In their mummy-grubbing quest. 



Dogs and Cats, and Hawks and Leopards, 



Isis and Osiris, too — 

 Surely, one bright day at Shepheard's 



Far surpassed the whole of you ! 

 Yet, from European trammels. 



We may well sometimes be free. 

 And on donkeys or on camels 



Ride, a Sacred Wolf to see ; 



Yes ! though Father Nile's putrescence 



For a while has laid me low, 

 Now I bar, in convalescence, 



Schweppe and milk — of Buffalo ; 

 And, I say, no more a roamer, 



Egypt's wonders are no sham. 

 Which is greatest ? Ask Lord Cromer, 



And perhaps he'll answer " Dam ! " 



Our journey home, via Brindisi, was uneventful, 

 except in so far as Mr. Gubbins's servant was 

 concerned. That he " never was meant for the 

 sea '' is certain, and the Mediterranean, though 

 smooth as a mill pond, wrought grievous havoc 

 with him, while the final touch from Calais to 

 Dover, just after the big gale, was positively 

 cruel, more especially when, having ineffectually 

 tried to fetch up at the landing-stage outside 



