His hair was weedy, his beard was long, And I heard this wight on the shore recite, "Oh, I am a cook and a captain bold, And he shook his fists and he tore his hair, For I could n't help thinking the man had been drinking, And so I simply said: "Oh, elderly man, it's little I know "At once a cook, and a captain bold, Then he gave a hitch to his trousers, which And having got rid of a thumping quid, He "'T was in the good ship Nancy Bell "And pretty nigh all o' the crew was drowned (There was seventy-seven o' soul), And only ten of the Nancy's men Said Here!' to the muster roll. "There was me and the cook and the captain bold, And the mate of the Nancy brig, And the bo'sun tight, and a midshipmite, "For a month we'd neither wittles nor drink, Till a-hungry we did feel, So, we drawed a lot, and, accordin' shot, "The next lot fell to the Nancy's mate, Then our appetite with the midshipmite "And then we murdered the bo'sun tight, Then we wittled free, did the cook and me, "Then only the cook and me was left, "For I loved that cook as a brother, I did, And the cook he worshipped me; But we'd both be blowed if we'd either be stowed In the other chap's hold, you see. "I'll be eat if you dines off me,' says Toм, Yes, that,' says I, 'you 'll be,' 'I'm boiled if I die, my friend,' quoth I, And Exactly so,' quoth he. 胺 Says he, Dear JAMES, to murder me Were a foolish thing to do, For don't you see that you can't cook me, While I can - and will- cook you!' "So, he boils the water, and takes the salt And the pepper in portions true (Which he never forgot), and some chopped shalot, And some sage and parsley too. "Come here,' says he, with a proper pride, Which his smiling features tell, 'T will soothing be if I let you see How extremely nice you 'll smell.' "And he stirred it round and round and round, And he sniffed at the foaming froth; When I ups with his heels, and smothers his squeals In the scum of the boiling broth. "And I eat that cook in a week or less, And -as I eating be The last of his chops, why I almost drops, |