Little Billee

Little Billee by William Makepeace Thackeray

"Little Billee," by William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-63), finds a place here because it carries a good lesson good-naturedly rendered. An accomplished teacher recommends it, and I recollect two young children in Chicago who sang it frequently for years without getting tired of it.

    There were three sailors of Bristol city
      Who took a boat and went to sea.
    But first with beef and captain's biscuits
      And pickled pork they loaded she.

    There was gorging Jack and guzzling Jimmy,
      And the youngest he was little Billee.
    Now when they got so far as the Equator
      They'd nothing left but one split pea.

    Says gorging Jack to guzzling Jimmy,
     "I am extremely hungaree."
    To gorging Jack says guzzling Jimmy,
     "We've nothing left, us must eat we."

    Says gorging Jack to guzzling Jimmy,
     "With one another, we shouldn't agree!
    There's little Bill, he's young and tender,
      We're old and tough, so let's eat he."

   "Oh! Billy, we're going to kill and eat you,
      So undo the button of your chemie."
    When Bill received this information
      He used his pocket-handkerchie.

   "First let me say my catechism,
      Which my poor mammy taught to me."
   "Make haste, make haste," says guzzling Jimmy
      While Jack pulled out his snickersnee.

    So Billy went up to the main-topgallant mast,
      And down he fell on his bended knee.
    He scarce had come to the Twelfth Commandment
      When up he jumps, "There's land I see.

   "Jerusalem and Madagascar,
      And North and South Amerikee:
    There's the British flag a-riding at anchor,
      With Admiral Napier, K.C.B."

    So when they got aboard of the Admiral's
      He hanged fat Jack and flogged Jimmee;
    But as for little Bill, he made him
      The Captain of a Seventy-three.

This work published before January 1, 1923 is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.