Page:Field Poems of Childhood.djvu/230

 In his little house he learned it all,

And he clinched his hands and he bowed his head—

"The fever!" they said.

'Twuz a pitiful time for Fisherman Jim,

With them darlin's a-dyin' afore his eyes,

A-stretchin' their wee hands out to him

An' a-breakin' his heart with the old-time cries

He had heerd so often upon the sands;

For they thought they wuz helpin' his boat ashore—

Till they spoke no more.

But Fisherman Jim lived on and on,

Castin' his nets an' sailin' the sea;

As a man will live when his heart is gone,

Fisherman Jim lived hopelessly,

Till once in those years they come an' said:

"Old Fisherman Jim is powerful sick—

Go to him, quick!"

Then Fisherman Jim says he to me:

"It 's a long, long cruise—you understand—

But over beyont the ragin' sea

I kin see my boys on the shinin' sand

Waitin' to help this ol' hulk ashore,

Just as they used to—ah, mate, you know!—

In the long ago."