THE TOKEN
The breeze was fresh, the ship in stays,
Each breaker hush'd, the shore a haze.
When Jack no more on duty call'd,
His true love's tokens overhaul'd;
The broken gold, the braided hair,
The tender motto, writ so fair,
Upon his 'bacco-box he views,
Nancy the poet, love the muse.
"If you loves I, as I loves you,
No pair so happy as we two."
The storm, that like a shapeless wreck,
Had strew'd with rigging all the deck,
That tars for sharks had giv'n a feast,
And left the ship a hulk—had ceas'd:
When Jack, as with his messmates dear,
He shared the grog their hearts to cheer,
Took from his 'bacco-box a quid,
And spell'd for comfort on the lid
"If you loves I, as I loves you,
No pair so happy as we two."
The voyage,—that had been long and hard,
But that had yielded full reward,
And brought each sailor to his friend
Happy and rich—was at an end:
When Jack, his toils and perils o'er,
Beheld his Nancy on the shore:
He then the 'bacco-box display'd,
And cried, and seized the yielding maid,
"If you loves I, as I loves you,
No pair so happy as we two."
C. Dibdin.