Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/21

 weather-beaten man-of-war’s man or privateersman sings lustily:



or "Jack, the Lad," "Black-eyed Susan," or the song Jack likes the best — "The Girl I Left Behind Me."

They were glad to see me home again, — mother, brothers, sisters, and friends, — and we had a jolly time  together once more. The very next day, however, I took a cruise on the wharves and visited old Titcomb’s  shipping office. He told me shipping was very dull and rates low, but offered me a boat steerer’s berth with a  very high lay on board a whaler. This almost persuaded me to ship, but while on Constitution Wharf, my eye caught sight of a man-of-war brig lying at anchor  in the stream off the Navy Yard, Charlestown. The following day I paid the Yard a visit. While viewing the brig, I saw the boatswain in a boat ahead of her,  squaring the yards by the lifts and braces. She proved to be the ten-gun brig Porpoise. She sat like a duck on the water, and looked as trim and neat as a young lady  in her Sunday rig. I must confess that I was fairly carried away with her and bewitched with her rakish looks. I was suddenly awakened from my dream by a gentle tap on the shoulder from an officer who proved to be  Captain Ramsey, commander of the handsome brig.