Explore "Corporal Dick's Promotion. a Ballad of '82" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The Eastern day was well-nigh o'er / When, parched with thirst and travel sore, / Two of McPherson's flanking corps / Across the Desert were tramping. / They had wandered off from the beaten track / And now were wearily harking back, / Ever staring round for the signal jack / That marked their comrades camping.
The one was Corporal Robert Dick, / Bearded and burly, short and thick, / Rough of speech and in temper quick, / A hard-faced old rapscallion. / The other, fresh from the barrack square, / Was a raw recruit, smooth-cheeked and fair / Half grown, half drilled, with the weedy air / Of a draft from the home battalion.