He was the most unwashedest
Old salt I ever knowed:
And all the things as he speaked about
Was nearly always "blowed."
One day he told me a straw'nry tale,
But I don't think it were lies,
Bekos he swore as it was true—
Tho' a big 'un as to size.
He sez as how in the Biskey Bay
They was sailin' along one night,
When a summat rose from the bilin' waves
As give him a norful fright.
He wouldn't exzagerate, he sed—
No, he wouldn't, not if he died;
But the head of that monster was most as big
As a bloomin' mountain-side.
Its eyes was ten times bigger 'an the moon;
Its ears was as long as a street;
And each of its eyelids—without tellin' lies—
Would have kivered an or'nary sheet.
"And now," said he, "may I never speak agin
If I'm a-tellin' yer wrong,
But the length o' that sarpint from head to tail
Warn't a ninch under ten mile long,
"To the end of its tail there hung a great wale,
And a-ridin' on its back was sharks;
On the top of its head about two hundred seals
Was a-havin' no end of larks.
"Now, as to beleevin' of what I sez next
Yer can do as yer likes," sez he;
"But this 'ere sarpint, or whatever he was,
He ups and he speaks to me.
"Sez the sarpint, sez he, in a voice like a clap
Of thunder, or a cannon's roar:
'Now say good-bye to the air and the sky
For you'll never see land no more.'
"I shivered like a sail wot's struck by a gale
And I downs on my bended knees;
And the tears rolls over my face like a sea,
And I shrieks like a gull in a breeze.