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Tomlinson

We have handled him, we have dandled him, we have seared him to the bone,

And sure if tooth and nail show truth, he has no soul of his own."

The Devil he bowed his head on his breast, and rum.

bled deep and low :

"I'm all o'er-sib to Adam's breed that I should bid

him go.

Yet close we lie, and deep we lie, and if I give him place, My gentlemen that are so proud would flout me to my

face;

They'd call my house a common stews and me a common host,

And

I would not anger my gentlemen for the sake of a shiftless ghost."

The Devil he looked at the mangled Soul that prayed to feel the flame,

And he thought of Holy Charity, but he thought of his own good name:

"Now ye could haste my coal to waste, and sit ye down to fry :

Did ye think of that theft for yourself?" said he; and Tomlinson said, "Ay!"

The Devil he blew an outward breath, for his heart was free from care:

"Ye have scarce the soul of a louse," he said, "but the roots of sin are there,

And for that sin should ye come in, were I the lord alone, But sinful pride has rule inside and mightier than

my own,

Honor and Wit, fore-damned they sit, to each his priest and whore:

15

Nay, scarce I dare myself go there, and you they'd torture sore.

"Ye are neither spirit nor spirk," he said; "ye are neither book nor brute

Go, get ye back to flesh again, for the sake of Man's

repute.

I'm all o'er-sib to Adam's breed that I should mock

your pain,

But look that ye win to worthier sin ere ye come back again.

Get hence the hearse is at your door the grim black stallions wait,

They bear your clay to place to-day. Speed lest ye come too late!

Go back to Earth with a lip unsealed

with an open eye,

go back

And carry my word to the Sons of Men or ever ye

come to die :

That the sin they do by two and two they must pay

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And... the God that ye took from a printed book be with you, Tomlinson!"

THE EXPLANATION

Love and Death once ceased their strife At the Tavern of Man's Life.

alas I

Called for wine, and threw
Each his quiver on the grass,
When the bout was o'er, they found
Mingled arrows strewed the ground.
Hastily they gathered then

Each the loves and lives of men.
Ah, the fateful dawn deceived!
Mingled arrows each one sheaved:
Death's dread armory was stored
With the shafts he most abhorred:
Love's light quiver groaned beneath
Venom-headed darts of Death.

Thus it was they wrought our woe
At the Tavern long ago.

Tell me, do our masters know,
Loosing blindly as they fly,

Old men love while young men die !

THE BALLAD OF THE “BOLI

VAR"

Seven men from all the world,
Back to Docks again-
Rolling down the Ratcliffe Road,
Drunk and raising Cain:
Give the girls another drink
'Fore we sign away —

We that took the "Bolivar'
Out across the Bay!

We put out from Sunderland loaded down with rails; We put back to Sunderland 'cause our cargo shifted; We put out from Sunderland-met the winter galesSeven days and seven nights to the Start we drifted.

Racketing her rivets loose,

Smoke-stack white as snow,

All the Coals adrift a-deck,
Half the rails below;
Leaking like a lobster-pot,

Steering like a dray -

Out we took the "Bolivar,"

Out across the Bay!

One by one the lights came up, winked, and let us by; Mile by mile we waddled on, coal and fo'c'sle short; Met a blow that laid us down, heard a bulkhead fly; Left the wolf behind us with a two-foot list to port.

The Ballad of the "Bolivar"

Trailing like a wounded duck,
Working out her soul;
Clanging like a smithy-shop
After every roll;

Just a funnel and a mast

Lurching through the spray-
So we threshed the "Bolivar "
Out across the Bay!

Felt her hog and felt her sag, betted when she'd break;

Wondered every time she raced if she'd stand the

shock;

Heard the seas like drunken men pounding at her strake;

Hoped the Lord 'ud keep his thumb on the plummerblock.

Banged against the iron decks,
Bilges chocked with coal;

Flayed and frozen, foot and hand,
Sick of heart and soul;
Last we prayed she 'd buck herself
Into Judgment Day-

Hi! we cursed the "Bolivar"

Knocking round the Bay!

Oh! her nose flung up to sky, groaning to be still-
Up and down and back we went, never time for

breath;

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