Page:Cerise, a tale of the last century (IA cerisetaleoflast00whytrich).pdf/250

 So young, so fresh, so beautiful! I wish you could see her. I am not sure but that you have seen her. Do you remember the day?"

What further confidences the skipper was about to impart were here cut short by a round of applause from the fore-*castle, apparently arising from some proposal much approved by the whole assemblage. The Captain, with his friend, paused to listen. It was a request that Bottle-Jack would sing, and seemed not unfavourably received by that veteran. After many excuses, and much of a mock modesty to be observed under similar conditions in the most refined societies, he took his quid from his cheek, and cleared his voice with great pomp ere he embarked on a ditty of which the subject conveyed a delicate compliment to the proclivities of his friend Smoke-Jack, who had originated the call, and which he sang in that flat, monotonous, and dispiriting key, only to be accomplished, I firmly believe, by an able seaman in the daily exercise of his profession. He designated it "The Real Trinidado," and it ran as follows:—

"Oh! when I was a lad, Says my crusty old dad, Says he,—'Jack! you must stick to the spade, oh!" But he grudged me my prog, And he grudged me my grog, And my pipe of the real Trinidado.

"Says my Syousan to me,— 'Jack, if you goes to sea, I'll be left but a desolate maid, oh!'  Then I answers her—'Sue!  Can't I come back to you When I'm done with the old Trinidado?"

"So to sea we clears out, And the ship's head, no doubt, Sou'-west and by sou' it was laid, oh!  For the isles of the sun,  Where there's fiddlers and fun, And no end of the real Trinidado.

"Says our skipper, says he, 'Be she close-hauled or free, She'd behave herself in a tornado!'  So he handles the ship  With a canful of flip, And a pipe of the real Trinidado.