Page:Pebbles and Shells (Hawkes collection).djvu/220

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A moment more and far away
I saw him rise and dip,
And when the midshipmite went down
He beckoned to the ship.

We never saw the lad again
Or heard his merry song,
And all our hearts were filled with grief
And all the ship seemed wrong.

But in the watches of the night
Our wretched captain swore
He heard the middy's cry for help
Above the deafening roar.

And when the morning came again
With breeze and balmy air,
He saw his form upon the waves;
His hand still beckoned there.

Thus wore the weary voyage on
Until we entered port,
With changing winds and fickle seas
And all things out of sort.

We lay in port a weary week
And then put out to sea,
The middy followed in our wake,
All was adversity.

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