1. The pirate told his bold corsairs to man the jolly-boats,
  2. To board the bark and seize the crew, and slit their tarry throats,
  3. And then to give his compliments to Captain Jones, and say
  4. He wished that he and Mrs. Jones would come and spend the day.
  1. They reached the bark, they killed the crew, they threw them in the sea,
  2. And then they sought the captain, who was mad as he could be,
  3. Because his wife—who saw the whole sad tragedy, it seems—
  4. Made all the ship vociferous with her outrageous screams.
  1. But when the pirate's message came, she dried her streaming tears,
  2. And said, although she'd like to come, she had unpleasant fears
  3. That, his social status being very evidently low,
  4. She might meet some common people whom she wouldn't care to know.

  1. Her husband's aged father, she admitted, dealt in bones,
  2. But the family descended from the famous Duke de Jones;
  3. And such blue-blooded people, that the rabble might be checked,
  4. Had to make their social circle excessively select.
  1. Before she visited his ship she wanted him to say
  2. If the Smythes had recognized him in a social, friendly way;
  3. Did the Jonsons ever ask him 'round to their ancestral halls?
  4. Was he noticed by the Thomsons? Was he asked to Simms's balls?
  1. The pirate wrote that Thomson was his best and oldest friend,
  2. That he often stopped at Jonson's when he had a week to spend;
  3. As for the Smythes, they worried him with their incessant calls;
  4. His very legs were weary with the dance at Simms's balls.