But you see I’m gettin’ older than when fust I sailed the ocean.
And there’s reasons for my speakin’ which was not existin’ then.
For now I’ve a wife and four little ones, too,
More sober and cautious to make me;
For it’s Heaven only knows what it is they could do,
If disaster and death overtake me.
’Lor! I’ve been to sea in ships as I knowed was well-nigh rotten;
I’ve a-sailed with big deck cargoes as was scandalus to see;
And I’ve run so many risks that I’ve half o’ them forgotten,
And I never once protested, no, nor grumbled, sir—not me!