Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/319

 "He wished to get her by the head That faster she might run; And, as our noble captain said, The thing it must be done.

"The wood we passed from aft to fore, With ropes we did it bind; The water casks lashed o’er and o’er To please our captain’s mind.

"He is a man that’s hard to please, He likes to keep us on the go; He never seems to be at ease When other folks are so.

"Our captain, he no seaman is, And that we all can plainly see; Yet he always likes to give orders, And thinks no one knows more than he.

"And when at times there comes on a squall, Our captain, he will frightened be; He’ll stamp and shout and confuse us all, So that we scarce can hear or see.

"Oft by the time the work is done And sails well taken in, Why, the wind it is all gone, We must make sail again.

"He likes to show the passengers He is a man both smart and bold, Has been through perilous dangers In storm, and heat, and cold.

"He often tells about Cape Horn, The Mediterranean, too, When he two years at sea was gone; Heaven knows if it be true!