132
RUDYARD KIPLING'S VERSE
"Oh, once we ha' met at Baltimore, and twice on Boston pier,
"But the sickest day for you, Reuben Paine, was the day that you came here—
"The day that you came here, my lad, to scare us from our seal
"With your funnel made o' your painted cloth, and your guns o' rotten deal!
"Ring and blow for the Baltic now, and head her back to the bay,
"And we'll come into the game again—with a double deck to play!"
"But the sickest day for you, Reuben Paine, was the day that you came here—
"The day that you came here, my lad, to scare us from our seal
"With your funnel made o' your painted cloth, and your guns o' rotten deal!
"Ring and blow for the Baltic now, and head her back to the bay,
"And we'll come into the game again—with a double deck to play!"
They rang and blew the sealers' call—the poaching cry of the sea—
And they raised the Baltic out of the mist, and an angry ship was she.
And blind they groped through the whirling white and blind to the bay again,
Till they heard the creak of the Stralsund's boom and the clank of her mooring chain.
They laid them down by bitt and boat, their pistols in their belts,
And: "Will you fight for it, Reuben Paine, or will you share the pelts?"
And they raised the Baltic out of the mist, and an angry ship was she.
And blind they groped through the whirling white and blind to the bay again,
Till they heard the creak of the Stralsund's boom and the clank of her mooring chain.
They laid them down by bitt and boat, their pistols in their belts,
And: "Will you fight for it, Reuben Paine, or will you share the pelts?"
A dog-toothed laugh laughed Reuben Paine, and bared his flenching-knife.
"Yea, skin for skin, and all that he hath a man will give for his life;
But I've six thousand skins below, and Yeddo Port to see,
And there's never a law of God or man runs north of Fifty-Three:
So go in peace to the naked seas with empty holds to fill,
And I'll be good to your seal this catch, as many as I shall kill!"
"Yea, skin for skin, and all that he hath a man will give for his life;
But I've six thousand skins below, and Yeddo Port to see,
And there's never a law of God or man runs north of Fifty-Three:
So go in peace to the naked seas with empty holds to fill,
And I'll be good to your seal this catch, as many as I shall kill!"
