Songs from Books

So they picked up their knives and their crossbows
And buried the dog. That's all.

But whether the man was a poacher too
Or a Pharisee[A - A fairy.] so bold —
I reckon there's more things told than are true,
And more things true than are told!

HERIOT'S FORD

'What's that that hirples at my side?' The foe that you must fight, my lord. 'That rides as fast as I can ride?' The shadow of your might, my lord.

'Then wheel my horse against the foe!' He's down and overpast, my lord.You war against the sunset glow,The judgment follows fast, my lord.

'Oh who will stay the sun's descent?' King Joshua he is dead, my lord. 'I need an hour to repent!' 'Tis what our sister said, my lord.

'Oh do not slay me in my sins!' You're safe awhile with us, my lord. 'Nay, kill me ere my fear begins.' We would not serve you thus, my lord.

'Where is the doom that I must face?' Three little leagues away, my lord. 'Then mend the horses' laggard pace!' We need them for next day, my lord.

'Next day – next day! Unloose my cords!'
Our sister needed none, my lord.
You had no mind to face our swords,
And – where can cowards run, my lord?

'You would not kill the soul alive?' 'Twas thus our sister cried, my lord. 'I dare not die with none to shrive.' But so our sister died, my lord.

'Then wipe the sweat from brow and cheek. It runnels forth afresh, my lord. 'Uphold me – for the flesh is weak.' You've finished with the Flesh, my lord.

FRANKIE'S TRADE

Old Horn to All Atlantic said: (A-hay O! To me O!') 'Now where did Frankie learn his trade? For he ran me down with a three-reef mains'le.' (All round the Horn!)

Atlantic answered: – 'Not from me!
You'd better ask the cold North Sea,
For he ran me down under all plain canvas.'
(All round the Horn!)

The North Sea answered: – 'He's my man,
For he came to me when he began —
Frankie Drake in an open coaster.
(All round the Sands!)

'I caught him young and I used him sore,
So you never shall startle Frankie more,
Without capsizing Earth and her waters.
(All round the Sands!)

'I did not favour him at all.
I made him pull and I made him haul —
And stand his trick with the common sailors.
(All round the Sands!)

'I froze him stiff and I fogged him blind.
And kicked him home with his road to find
By what he could see in a three-day snow-storm
(All round the Sands!)

'I learned him his trade o' winter nights,
'Twixt Mardyk Fort and Dunkirk lights
On a five-knot tide with the forts a-firing.
(All round the Sands!)

'Before his beard began to shoot,
I showed him the length of the Spaniard's foot —
And I reckon he clapped the boot on it later.
(All round the Sands!)

'If there's a risk which you can make.
That's worse than he was used to take
Nigh every week in the way of his business;
(All round the Sands!)

'If there's a trick that you can try,
Which he hasn't met in time gone by,
Not once or twice, but ten times over;
(All round the Sands!)

'If you can teach him aught that's new,
(A-hay O! To me O!)
I'll give you Bruges and Niewport too,
And the ten tall churches that stand between 'em.'
Storm along my gallant Captains!
(All round the Horn!)

THE JUGGLER'S SONG

When the drums begin to beat
Down the street,
When the poles are fetched and guyed,
When the tight-rope's stretched and tied,
When the dance-girls make salaam,
When the snake-bag wakes alarm,
When the pipes set up their drone,
When the sharp-edged knives are thrown,
When the red-hot coals are shown,
To be swallowed by and bye —
Arré Brethren, here come I!

Stripped to loin-cloth in the sun,