The vessel he steered so near the land,
That frightened they cried: "The ship will strand!"
He turned her round with a lurch and heave,
And he smiled upon them: "Now have I leave?"
The poem was said tremblingly, solemnly, without a trace of affectation. They stood as if a ray had shot up among them from the earth, in all the splendours of the rainbow. No one spoke, no one moved;--but the captain could no longer control himself, he sprang up, puffed, stretched himself, and said: "Well I don't know how it is with you; but when I am taken in this way, the deuce take me if--"--"Captain, there you swore again," said the little girl, and held up her finger threateningly; "the devil will come this very hour and take you!"--"Well, it is all the same my child, let him come, for now I must, the deuce take me, must have a patriotic song!" And so he began with a voice so terrific, that one would have thought the great stomach gave pressure as organ bellows--and the rest with him:--
I will watch our land,
I will build up our land
I will further its cause in my prayers, in my home,
I will increase its gains,
And its wants seek with pains
From the boundary out to the driving sea foam.
There is sunlight enough,
There are corn fields enough,
If we pull but together there's plenty of stuff.
Midst the labour and strife
There's poetical life