PICTURES.
"Some likes picturs o' women" (said Bill) "an' some likes 'orses best,"
As he fitted a pair of fancy shackles on to his old sea-chest;
"But I likes picturs o' ships" (said he), "an' you can keep the rest.
"An' if I was a ruddy millionaire with dollars to burn that way,
Instead of a dead-broke sailorman as never saves his pay,
I'd go to some big paintin' guy, an' this is what I'd say:—
"'Paint me The Cutty Sark' (I'd say) 'or the old Thermopylæ,
Or The Star of Peace as I sailed in once in my young days at sea,
Shipshape an' Blackwall fashion too, as a clipper ought to be.
"'An' you might do 'er outward bound, with a sky full o' clouds,
An' the tug just droppin' astern an' gulls flyin' in crowds,
An' the decks shiny-wet with rain an' the wind shakin' the shrouds.
"'Or else racin' up-Channel with a sou'-wester blowin',
Stuns'ls set aloft and alow an' a hoist o' flags showin',
An' a white bone between her teeth, so's you can see she's goin'.
"'Or you might do 'er off Cape Stiff in the 'igh latitudes yonder,
With her main-deck a smother of white an' her lee-rail dipping under,
And the big greybeards drivin' by an' breakin' aboard like thunder.
"'Or I'd like old Tuskar somewhere around—or Sydney 'eads, maybe,
Or Bar Light, or the Tail o' the Bank, or a glimp o' Circular Quay,
Or a junk or two, if she's tradin' East, to show it's the China Sea.
"'Nor I don't want no dabs o' paint as you can't tell what they are,
Whether they're shadders or fellers' faces or blocks or blobs o' tar,
But I want gear as looks like gear an' a spar that's like a spar.
"'An' I don't care if it's North or South, the Trades or the China Sea,
Shortened down or everythin' set, close-hauled or runnin' free;
You paint me a ship as is like a ship an' that'll do for me.'"
C.F.S.
Old-fashioned Aunt. "Good heavens, child! You're not going out like that? You look like a chorus-girl."
Modern Maiden. "Oh, come, Aunt! I don't look as horribly respectable as that, surely?"