Page:Songs from the Southern Seas and Other Poems (1873).djvu/128

124 Then they did what wild Nantucket boys have never failed to do,— Went and filled two oily bunks among a whaler's oily crew. And the mothers,—ah! they raised their hands and blessed the lucky day, While Nantucket waved its handkerchief to see them sail away.

On a four years' cruise they started in the brave old "Patience Parr," And were soon initiated in the mysteries of tar. There they found the truth that whalers' tales are unsubstantial wiles,— They were sick and sore and sorry ere they passed the Western Isles; And their captain, old-man Sculpin, gave their fancies little scope, For he argued with a marlinspike and reasoned with a rope.

But they stuck together bravely, they were Ishmaels with the crew: