A waterman came up to her;
"Now, young woman," said he,
"If you weep on so, you will make
Eye water in the sea."
"Alas! they've taken my beau, Ben,
To sail with old Benbow";
And her woe began to run afresh,
As if she'd said, Gee woe!
Says he, "They've only taken him
To the tender ship, you see."
"The tender ship," cried Sally Brown—
"What a hardship that must be!
"Oh! would I were a mermaid now,
For then I'd follow him;
But, oh! I'm not a fish woman,
And so I can not swim.
"Alas! I was not born beneath
The Virgin and the Scales,
So I must curse my cruel stars,
And walk about in Wales."
Now Ben had sailed to many a place
That's underneath the world;
But in two years the ship came home,
And all her sails were furled.
But when he called on Sally Brown,
To see how she got on,
He found she'd got another Ben,
Whose Christian name was John.
"O Sally Brown, O Sally Brown,
How could you serve me so?
I've met with many a breeze before.
But never such a blow!"
Then reading on his 'bacco box,
He heaved a heavy sigh
And then began to eye his pipe,
And then to pipe his eye.
And then he tried to sing "All's Well!"
But could not, though he tried;
His head was turned—and so he chewed
His pigtail till he died.
His death, which happened in his berth,
At forty-odd befell;
They went and told the sexton, and
The sexton tolled the bell.
Thomas Hood.