THE TRUTHFUL TAR'S TALE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 347, 25 March 1911, Page 2

THE TRUTHFUL TAR'S TALE.

I stood one day by a breezy bay Watching the ships go by, When an old tar. said, with a shake of his head, "I wish't I could tell a. He. "I've see'd some sights as would jigger you lights And they jiggered me own forsooth, But I ain't worth a darn at spinning a yarn That wanders away from the truth. ' We were out on the bark the Nancy Stark, Just a league and half at sea, When Captain Snook, with a troubled look, He comes and he says to me : "Bo'sun Smith, make haste forthwith And hemstitch the spanker sail, And accordion pleat the for'd sheet For she's going to blow a gale.' " I straightway did as the Cap'n bid. No sooner the job was through Than the north wind crack took us dead aback, An', mar derm" lights,, how she blew ! " She Mowed the tars right off the spars, The spars right ofi'n the masts ; Anchors and sails and kegs and nails Went, by on the wings of the blast. " Our galley shook as she blowed our cook Eight out through the starboard glim, And pots and pans and kettles and cans Went a clattering arter him. " She blowed out the fire in the galley stove, The coal right out of the bin ; Then she whistled apace past the Cap'n's face And blowed all the hair off his chin. "* O, wiggle me dead !' the Cap'n said, And them words blowed out of his mouth. * We're lost, I fear, if the wind don't veer And blow awhile from the south.' " ' 0, wiggle me dead !' No sooner he'd said Them words that blowed out of his mouth Than the wind hauled 'round with a hurricane sound And blowed straight up from the south. "Wc opened our eyes in wild surprise, And never a word did we say, For in changing her tack the wind blowed back The things she'd blowed away. "She blowed the tars back on the spars, The spars back on the mast. Back liew anchors and sails and kegs and nails Which into the ship stuck fast. " And 'fore we could look she blowed the cook Right under the galley poop And bar', came the kettles and pots and pans Without even spilling the soup. "She blowed the tire back into the stove. Where it burned In its regular pi act 1 , And we all of us cheered when she blew the beard Back on to the Cap'n's face. "There's more of my tale," said that sailor hale, - s, As would jigger your lights forsooth, But I ain't worth a darn at spinning a yarn That wanders away from the truth."--'"Scraps."