Page:Poems that every child should know (ed. Burt, 1904).djvu/184

146 The buoy of the Inchcape Bell was seen,

A dark spot on the ocean green;

Sir Ralph the Rover walked his deck,

And he fixed his eye on the darker speck.

He felt the cheering power of spring;

It made him whistle, it made him sing:

His heart was mirthful to excess,

But the Rover's mirth was wickedness.

His eye was on the Inchcape float.

Quoth he, "My men, put out the boat

And row me to the Inchcape Rock,

And I'll plague the Abbot of Aberbrothok."

The boat is lowered, the boatmen row,

And to the Inchcape Rock they go;

Sir Ralph bent over from the boat,

And he cut the Bell from the Inchcape float.

Down sank the Bell with a gurgling sound;

The bubbles rose and burst around.

Quoth Sir Ralph, "The next who comes to the Rock

Won't bless the Abbot of Aberbrothok."

Sir Ralph the Rover sailed away;

He scoured the sea for many a day;

And now grown rich with plundered store,

He steers his course for Scotland's shore.

So thick a haze o'erspread the sky,

They cannot see the sun on high: