LITTLE BILLEE
by: W.M. Thackeray (1811-1863)
- HERE were three sailors of Bristol
City
- Who took a boat and went to sea,
- But first with beef and captain's biscuits,
- And pickled pork they loaded she.
-
- There was a gorging Jack, and guzzling Jimmy,
- And the youngest he was little Billee.
- Now when they'd got as far as the Equator,
- They'd nothing left but one split pea.
-
- Says gorging Jack to guzzling Jimmy,
- "I am extremely hungaree."
- To gorging Jack says guzzling Jimmy,
- "We've nothing left, us must eat we."
-
- Says gorging Jack to guzzling Jimmy,
- "With one another we shouldn't agree!
- There's little Bill, he's young and tender,
- We're old and tough, so let's eat he."
-
- "O Billy! we're going to kill and eat you,
- So undo the button of your chemie."
- When Bill received this information,
- He used his pocket-handkerchief.
-
- "First let me say my catechism,
- Which my poor mother taught me."
- "Make haste! make haste!" says guzzling Jimmy,
- While Jack pulled on his snicker-snee.
-
- Then Bill went up to the main-top-gallant-mast,
- And down he fell on his bended knee,
- He scarce had come to the Twelfth Commandment
- When up he jumps--"There's land I see!"
-
- "Jerusalem and Madagascar,
- And North and South Amerikee,
- There's the British flag a-riding at anchor,
- With Admiral Napier, K.C.B."
-
- So when they got aboard of the Admiral's,
- He hanged fat Jack and flogged Jimmee,
- But as for little Bill, he made him
- The captain of a Seventy-three.
"Little Billee" is reprinted
from A Nonsense Anthology. Ed. Carolyn Wells. New York:
Charles Scribner's Son, 1915. |
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POEMS BY W.M. THACKERAY |
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