JACK'S THE LAD.
Our ship’s a-port, so here I be,
With heart as light as cork, d’ye see;
’Pon larboard quarter Poll is jigging,
Dress’d all in her Sunday rigging—
Wench and fiddle always make a sailor glad;
Old Nipperkin, the landlord, keeps the grog afloat,
Kindly is the liquor handed down each other throat;
For if ever sailor took delight in
Swigging, kissing, dancing, fighting,
Dam’me! I make bold to say that Jack’s the lad.
With my tol de rol, &c.
Cheerly, my lads, ye know Jack Spry,
So full of romps and rigs that I—
D’ye hear the merry fiddle going?
Sblood! it sets mo off a-toeing.
That’s he—Catgut, College Hornpipe, brisk old dad!
Now for a reel—Sir David Hunter Blair—that’s Scotch;
Or Langolee, or anything but French or Dutch;
For if ever fellow took delight in
Swigging, kissing, dancing, fighting,
Dam’me! I make bold to say that Jack’s the lad.
With my tol de rol, &c.
My locker’s rich—the devil’s mite!
Why, here’s a pretty rig!—Yes—I’m right;
An old friend, like a blubbering ninny
Look’d distress’d like—got my guinea.
Can’t help sniv’lling, somehow, when I see folk sad;
But howsomever, should I’ve luck to fall once more
Longside a Mounseer, homeward hound, he’ll pay the score;
For if ever fellow took delight in
Swigging, kissing, dancing, fighting,
Dam’me! I make bold to say that Jack’s the lad.
With my tol de rol, &c.
Huzza!—a gun!—the signal’s made;
All hands on hoard—the anchor’s weigh’d;
Lord! how the girls in scores are flying
Fore and aft, all sohhing, crying;
Thoughts of parting makes them all run roaring mad;
But honour bids her gallant sons to glory go,
So off again we scud to lick the saucy foe;
For if ever fellow took delight in
Swigging, kissing, dancing, fighting.
Dam’me! I make bold to say that Jack’s the lad
With my tol de rol, &c.
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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