“‘Just waiting for Tom Green to sing the chanty, sir,’ said he. And in a minute, Tom Green came.
“He wasn’t a very large sailor, but he had one blue and one brown eye, and red and blue anchors and ships and stars and a weeping-willow tattooed on his arms; and he wore his sleeves rolled up high to show them. And he stood up on a water cask in the stern, and the sailors all stood ready, in long lines, with the ropes in their hands.
“Then the Mate said, ‘Are you ready, Bos’n?’ and the Bos’n said, ‘Ay, ay, sir!’
“‘Then, hoist away!’ ordered the Mate.
“The Bos’n blew his whistle, and Tom Green began to sing the chanty, and this is how it began:—
(Tom) “We have left our happy home,
On the ocean for to roam.”
(Sailors) “Yeo, ho! Away we go!
Round the world and back again.—
Yeo—heave-ho!”