Page:Patriotic pieces from the Great War, Jones, 1918.djvu/77

Rh THE SAILOR-MAN

Permission of Life, New York

I like the look of khaki and the cut of army wear,

And the men of mettle sporting it, at home and over there;

But there's something at the heart-strings that tautens when I meet

A blue-clad sailor-man adrift, on shore-leave from the fleet.

From flapping togs his sea-legs win some tinge of old romance

That's proper to the keeper of the paths that lead to France;

For what were all the soldiers worth that ever tossed a gun

Without the ships and sailor-men to pit them 'gainst the Hun!

There's sunlight now and steady ground beneath the sailor's tread,

And every pleasure beckons him, and every snare is spread;

Speed well this visitor, whose home 'twixt heaving decks is set,

Whose playmates are the darkness, and the bitter cold, and wet!