She was the sauciest of the saucy, "for an old un", as Jack phrased it.
"The old jade!" someone would remark, as she curtseyed to a wave, flinging the spray far over the bows; "the old jade! I believe she is doing it on purpose. Whoa, lass, whoa!"
And some of the songs sung on that Saturday night were perhaps homely enough, but every one of them breathed of the brine and the billows. Two verses, for example—they were trolled by Chips the carpenter, the hoarse old bo's'n putting in a good bass, and some of Mother Carey's chickens piping a tenor as they dashed from blue wave to blue wave after itinerant white-bait—I give below:
JACK AND HIS NANCY.
"Scarce the foul hurricane was cleared,
Scarce winds and waves had ceased to rattle,
Ere a bold enemy appeared,
And, dauntless, we prepared for battle.
And now while some lov'd friend or wife
Like lightning rush'd on ev'ry fancy,
To Providence I trusted life,
Put up a prayer—and thought of Nancy.
"At last—'twas in the month of May,
The crew, it being lovely weather,
At three A.M. discovered day
And England's chalky cliffs together;
At seven up Channel how we bore!
While hopes and fears rush'd on my fancy;
At twelve I gaily jumped on shore,
And to my throbbing heart press'd Nancy."
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Well, that is all very well in song, but nowadays at all events Jack doesn't get leave to jump on shore at twelve if his ship comes in at seven. Nor for a day or two, or even three. There is a clean bill of health to be got first, and any amount of little matters and morsels of red tape to be seen to.
But Nancy may come on board, and Jack isn't a bit shy at such times. Oh no, I never met a true sailor who was.
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