“I kissed the stove a long farewell,
An’ wished the maker a mile in h——l,
An’ th’ builder of the galley there as well,
An’ I flew from th’ pine-wood dro-o-gher!”
A howl of guffaws greeted the last verse, and with a “Tune her up again, Tommy-boy!” the ballad singer broke into another Blue-nose “Come-all-ye” describing the voyage of an Annapolis barquentine to Demerara. The singer worked her every foot of the way to her destination and back, and even dilated upon the flirtations of the crew in the South-American port.
“We wish aour fr’en’s could see us naow,
You bet they would be shy,
For we have sweethearts by th’ score,
Though we court ’em on the sly;
Daown comes a yaller gal—dressed up like a queen,