“He will be by-and-bye, when his work is done.”

“Yes, when it is; but open boats, stormy seas, and the halter, are heavy odds, Mr Salisbury.”

“Don’t mention the halter, Mistress Nancy, you’ll make me melancholy,” replied Jemmy, “and I sha’n’t be able to sing any more.  Well, if they want to hang me, they need not rig the yard-arm, three handspikes as sheers, and I shouldn’t find soundings, heh!  Moggy?”

Nancy laughed at the ludicrous idea; but Moggy exclaimed with vehemence, “Hang my Jemmy! my darling duck!  I should like to see them.”

“At all events, we’ll have another song from him, Moggy, before they spoil his windpipe, which, I must say, would be a great pity; but Moggy, there have been better men hung than your husband.”

“Better men than my Jemmy, Mrs Corbett!  There never was one like him afore or since;” replied Moggy, with indignation.

“I only meant of longer pedigree, Moggy,” replied Nancy soothingly.

“I don’t know what that is,” replied Moggy, still angry.

“Longer legs, to be sure,” replied Jemmy.  “Never mind that, Moggy.  Here goes, a song in two parts.  It’s a pity, Mistress Nancy, that you couldn’t take one.”

     “When will you give up this life of wild roving? 
       When shall we be quiet and happy on shore? 
     When will you to church lead your Susan, so loving,
       And sail on the treacherous billows no more?”

     “My ship is my wife, Sue, no other I covet,
       Till I draw the firm splice that’s betwixt her and me;
     I’ll roam on the ocean, for much do I love it—­
       To wed with another were rank bigamy.”

     “O William, what nonsense you talk, you are raving;
       Pray how can a ship and a man become one? 
     You say so because you no longer are craving,
       As once you were truly—­and I am undone.”

     “You wrong me, my dearest, as sure as I stand here,
       As sure as I’ll sail again on the wide sea;
     Some day I will settle, and marry with you, dear,
      But now ’twould be nothing but rank bigamy.”

     “Then tell me the time, dear William, whenever
       Your Sue may expect this divorce to be made;
     When you’ll surely be mine, when no object shall sever,
       But locked in your arms I’m no longer afraid.”

     “The time it will be when my pockets are lined,
       I’ll then draw the splice ’tween my vessel and me,
     And lead you to church, if you’re still so inclined—­
       But before, my dear Sue, ’twere rank bigamy.”

“Thank you, Mr Salisbury.  I like the moral of that song; a sailor never should marry till he can settle on shore.”

“What’s the meaning of big-a-me?” said Moggy.

“Marrying two husbands or two wives, Mrs Salisbury.  Perhaps you might get off on the plea that you had only one and a half,” continued Nancy, laughing.