Our line was a string, our hook a pin,
But the big fish came a tumbling in
Oh! anything we did wish,
Yo ho! Oh anything we did wish.
4
"Oh, there were dolphins rainbow bright
That came to our net from the streams;
A whale with tons of good sperm oil,
Wicked sharks grinning for human spoil
And—things you see only in dreams,
Yo ho! Things you see only in dreams.
5
"And now we're rich and we can't play hookey
Just as once we did,
Can't dig such gold, can't catch such fish,
Nor sail those seas and how I wish
I was still a foolish kid!
Yo ho! I was still a foolish kid."
So they rowed and rowed until they reached the great sea wall, rising sheer above the foam that laced its foot like swirling chiffon in a breeze. The boy and girl gazed up at the white sea-birds sailing in circles around it, and saw the opening of the cavern, approached by the perilous path. Quite innocent in the bright daylight it looked, but still they shuddered, remembering.
Now they sighted the Cape and there, in the very centre, waving in the morning breeze, stood the solitary palm, per haps the key to the whole puzzle.
