That when danger comes 'tis as well for to jest on't,
'Twill be but the lighter felt when it do come:
If you think, then, from this that I an't got a notion
Of a heaven above, with its mercy in store,
And the devil below, for us lads of the ocean,
Just the same as it be for the landsmen on shore,--
Lord love you!!

"If because I don't splice with some true-hearted woman,
Who'd doat on my presence, and sob when I sail,
But put up with you, Poll, though faithful to no man,
With a fist that can strike, and a tongue that can rail;
'Tis because I'm not selfish, and know 'tis my duty
If I marry to moor by my wife, and not leave her,
To dandle the young ones,--watch over her beauty,
D'ye think that I'd promise and vow, then deceive her?--
Lord love you!!

"I suppose that you think 'cause I'm free with my money,
Which others would hoard and lock up in their chest,
All your billing and cooing, and words sweet as honey,
Are as gospel to me while you hang on my breast;
But no, Polly, no;--you may take every guinea,
They'd burn in my pocket, if I took them to sea;
But as for your love, Poll, I indeed were a ninny,--
D'ye think I don't know you cheat others than me?
Lord love you!!"

"Well, that's a good song, Jemmy, and he can't pull you up for that,
anyhow."

Mr Vanslyperken appeared to think otherwise, for he sent a marine
forward to say, that no singing would be permitted in future, and that
they were immediately to desist.

"I suppose we shall have a song considered as mutiny soon," observed
Coble. "Ah, well, it's a long lane that has no turning."

"Yes," replied Jemmy, in an under tone, "and for every rogue there's a
rope laid up. Never mind, let us go below."

Mr Vanslyperken's dreaming thoughts of the fair widow were nevertheless
occasionally interrupted by others not quite so agreeable. Strange to
say, he fully believed what Smallbones had asserted about his being
carried out by the tide to the Nab buoy and he canvassed the question in
his mind, whether there was not something supernatural in the affair, a
sort of interposition of Providence in behalf of the lad, which was to
be considered as a warning to himself not to attempt anything further.
He was frightened, although his feeling for revenge was still in all its
force. As for an