Without complaining, and the food

He gets to eat is very crude.

And yet he laughs at all his chores.

He says the maid who scrubs our floors

Will have to quit when he returns

Unless a better way she learns.

"I've got it on the fairer sex,"

Says he, "since I am swabbing decks."

"A sailor's life, dear Mom," writes he,

"Is not the life you picked for me.