"Pemberton," he went on, "the seaman follows his profit and luck
around the world. You sit by your chimney and they come to you. And
if I was doing it again, or my old ship, the _Annalee_, was to
come banging and bouncing at this door, saying 'Have a cruise,
Captain Buckingham; rise up!' I'd say: 'You go dock yourself.'"
"She might, if she came overland, maybe," said Stevey Todd, "seeing
it blows brisk, which I admits and I stands by, for she was a tall
sailing ship was the _Annalee_."
"She was that," said Captain Tom; "the best ship I ever sailed in,
barring the _Hebe Maitland_."
Whereat Stevey Todd said, "_There_ was a ship!" and Uncle
Abimelech piped up again, singing these singular words:
"There was a ship
In Bailey's Slip.
One evil day
We sailed away
From Bailey's Slip
We sailed away, with Captain Clyde,
An old, old man with a copper hide,
In the _Hebe Maitland_ sailed, Hooroar!
And fetched the coast of Ecuador."
"Aye," said Captain Tom. "Those were Kid Sadler's verses. There's
many of 'em that Abe can say over, and he can glue a tune to 'em
well, for he's got that kind of a memory that's loose, but stringy
and long, and he always had.
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