Betsy Lee, a fo'c's'le yarn [in verse by T.E. Brown].

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Page 2 - I said I would? Well, I hardly know; But a yarn's a yarn, so here we go. It's along of me and a Lawyer's Clerk — You've seen, mayhap, that sort of spark? As neat, and as pert, and as sharp as a pin, With a mossel of hair on the tip of his chin; With his face so fine and his tongue so glib, And a saucy cock in the set of his jib; With his rings and his studs, and all the rest, And half a chain cable paid out on his breast.
Page 74 - My son, my son ! " And the moon come round, and the light shone in, And crep' on her face, and I saw the thin She was, and the wore, and her neck all dried And shrivelled up like strips of hide : And I thought of the time it was as warm And as soft as Betsy's, and her husband's arm Around it strong and lovin, and me A cuddled up, and a suckin free. And I cried like Peter in the Testament, When Jesus looked at him, and out he went, And cried like a fool, and the cock a crowin.
Page 16 - And Betsy and me sittin back in the chimley, And her a clickin her needles so nimbly, And me lookin straight in ould Anthony's face, And a stealin my arm round Betsy's wais'. Aw the shy she was ! But when Anthony said "Now, childher ! it's time to be goin to bed" — Then Betsy would say, as we all of us riz, "I wonder what sort of a night it is;" Or— "Never mind, father! I'll shut the door...
Page 18 - I'd never seen nothin' of Betsy Lee Except her foot, I was bound to know That she was as pure as the driven snow. For there's feet that houlds on like a cat on a roof, And there's feet that thumps like an elephant's hoof; There's feet that goes trundlin...
Page 74 - And the very face itself had went All into one, like a sudden thaw, Slished and slushed, or the way you've saw The water bubblin and swirlin around The place where a strong man have gone down. And I took her and put her upon the bed Like a little child, and her poor ould head On my breast, and I hushed her, and stroked her cheek, Talkin little talk — the way they speak To babies — I did ! and d the shame ! Wasn it out of her I came ? And I began to think of Absalun, And David cryin " My son,...
Page 11 - Or gath'rin blue-bells, or lookin for eggs, Or peltin the ducks with their yalla legs, Or a climbin, and nearly breakin your skulls, Or a shoutin for divilment after the gulls, Or a thinkin of nothin, but down at the tide, Singin out for the happy you feel inside.
Page 72 - Misther and Misthress Lee in the gig — Make way, good people ! — aw, terrible big ! And would I demean myself to them ? You silly-billy ! for shame ! for shame ! " And at it again — " And what she would rather — And me the very spit of my father ! And what was a bychild, if you come to that ? It wasn a dog, and it wasn a cat ; But a man's own flesh, and the love and the life Was in it...
Page 12 - And her breast a swellin higher and higher ; And she gripped her sickle with a twitchy feel, And her thumb started out like a coil of steel, And a cloud seemed to pass from my eyes, and a glory Like them you'll see painted sometimes in a story, Breathed out from her skin ; and I saw her no more The child I had always...
Page 8 - With the pigs and the hens and the chi'dher mixed ; And the mothers go round when the nights begin, And whips up their own, and takes them in. Her father was terrible fond of flowers, And his garden was twice as handsome as ours— A mortal keen eye he had for the varmin, And his talk was always of plantin and farmin. He had roses hangin...
Page 56 - Jesus' sake. And many a time he'd come out and try A line, and the keen he was, and the spry ! And he'd sit in the stern, and he'd tuck his tails, And well he knew how to handle the sails. And sometimes, if we were smookin, he'd ax For a pipe, and then we'd be turnin our backs, Lettin on never to see him, and lookin This way and that way, and him a smookin Twis' as strong and as black as tar, And terrible sollum and regular.

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