Page:Songs, Legends, and Ballads.djvu/74

62 "Spring came at last, the ice-fields groaned
 * Like living things in pain;

They moaned and swayed, then rent amain,
 * And the Narwhale sailed again.

With joy the dripping sails were loosed
 * And round the vessel swung;

To cheer the crew, full south she drew,
 * The shattered floes among.

We had no books in those old days
 * To carry the friendly faces;

But I think the wives and lasses then
 * Were held in better places.

The face of sweetheart and wife to-day
 * Is locked in the sailor's chest:

But aloft on the yard, with the thought of home,
 * The face in the heart was best.

Well, well—God knows, mates, when and where
 * To take the things he gave;

We steered for home—but the chart was his,
 * And the port ahead—the grave!