* * * * *
“The British fleet bombarded Skarvika and Semuntoltos, south of Orfano. Marshall’s 7, Martyn’s 2. Wakefield (3), Stone (2), Cripps, and Turbyfield scored for the winners.”—Gloucestershire Echo.
We like this idea of recording the names of the successful marksmen at once, without waiting for the formal despatches.
* * * * *
A DREAM SHIP.
Oh I wish I had a clipper ship with carvings
on her counter,
With lanterns on her poop-rail
of beaten copper wrought;
I would dress her like a lady in the whitest
cloth and mount her
With a long bow-chasing swivel
and a gun at every port.
I would sign me on a master who had solved
MERCATOR’S riddle,
A nigger cook with earrings
who neither chewed nor drank,
Who wore a red bandanna and was handy
on the fiddle,
I would take a piping bos’un
and a cabin-boy to spank.
Then some fine Summer morning when
the Falmouth cocks were crowing
I would set my capstan spinning to the chanting
of all hands,
And the milkmaids on the uplands would lament to
see me going
As I beat for open Channel and away to foreign
lands,
Singing—
Fare ye well, O lady mine,
Fare ye well, my pretty one,
For the anchor’s at the cat-head and the
voyage is begun,
The wind is in the mainsail, we’re slipping
from the land
Hull-down with all sail making, close-hauled with
the white-tops breaking,
Bound for the Rio Grande.
Fare ye well!
With the flying-fish around us and
a porpoise school before us,
Full crowded under royals to the south’ard
we would sweep;
We would hear the bull whales blowing and the mermaids
sing in chorus,
And perhaps the white seal mummies hum their chubby
calves to sleep.
We would see the hot towns paddling
in the surf of Spanish waters,
And prowl beneath dim balconies and twang discreet
guitars,
And sigh our adoration to Don Juan’s lovely
daughters
Till they lifted their mantillas and their dark
eyes shone like stars.
We would cruise by fairy islands where
the gaudy parrot screeches
And the turtle in his soup-tureen
floats basking in the calms;
We would see the fire-flies winking in
the bush above the beaches
And a moon of honey yellow
drifting up behind the palms.
We would crown ourselves with garlands
and tread a frolic measure
With the nut-brown island
beauties in the firelight by the huts;
We would give them rum and kisses; we
would hunt for pirate treasure,
And bombard the apes with
pebbles in exchange for coco-nuts.
When we wearied of our wand’rings
’neath the blazing Southern heaven
And dreamed of Kentish orchards fragrant-scented
after rain,
Of the cream there is in Cornwall and the cider
brewed in Devon,
We would crowd our yards with canvas and sweep
foaming home again,


