Nor there wasn't a sheet, or a lift, or a brace, But the old man knew its lead and place. Then up and spake the caulkyers bold, Which was packing the pump in the afterhold; "Since you with us have made so free, Will you kindly tell what your name might be?" The old man kindly answered them; "It might be Japheth, it might be Shem, Or it might be Ham (though his skin was dark) Whereas it is Noah, commanding the Ark. "Your wheel is new and your pumps are strange, But otherwise I perceive no change, And in less than a week, if she did not ground, I'd sail this hooker the wide world round!" Both: We tell these tales, which are strictest true, How very little, since things was made, Anything alters in any one's trade. A SMUGGLER'S SONG If you wake at midnight, and hear a horse's feet, Don't go drawing back the blind, or looking in the street, Them that ask no questions isn't told a lie. Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by! Five and twenty ponies, Trotting through the dark Brandy for the Parson, 'Baccy for the Clerk; Laces for a lady, letters for a spy, And watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by! Running round the woodlump if you chance to find Little barrels, roped and tarred, all full of brandy-wine, Don't you shout to come and look, nor use 'em for your play. Put the brishwood back again and they'll be gone next day! If you see the stable-door setting open wide; If you see a tired horse lying down inside; If your mother mends a coat cut about and tore; If the lining's wet and warm — don't you ask no more! If you meet King George's men, dressed in blue and red, You be careful what you say, and mindful what is said. If they call you "pretty maid," and chuck you 'neath the chin, Don't you tell where no one is, nor yet where no one's been! Knocks and footsteps round the house whistles after dark You've no call for running out till the housedogs bark. Trusty's here, and Pincher's here, and see how dumb they lie They don't fret to follow when the Gentlemen If you do as you've been told, 'likely there's a chance, You'll be give a dainty doll, all the way from France, With a cap of Valenciennes, and a velvet hood A present from the Gentlemen, along o' being good! Five and twenty ponies, Trotting through the dark, 'Baccy for the Clerk. Them that asks no questions isn't told a lie Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentle men go by! KING HENRY VII AND THE SHIPWRIGHTS (A.D. 1487) Harry, our King in England, from London town is gone, And comen to Hamull on the Hoke in the countie of Suthampton. For there lay The Mary of the Tower, his ship of war so strong, And he would discover, certaynely, if his shipwrights did him wrong. He told not none of his setting forth, nor yet where he would go, (But only my Lord of Arundel) and meanly did he show, In an old jerkin and patched hose that no man might him mark, With his frieze hood and cloak above, he looked like any clerk. He was at Hamull on the Hoke about the hour of the tide, |