LITTLE BILLEE
[Sidenote:  W.M.  Thackeray]

Air—­“Il y avait un petit navire”

  There 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 gorging Jack and guzzling Jimmy,
    And the youngest he was little Billee. 
  Now when they 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.

  “Oh, Billy, we’re going to kill and eat you,
    So undo the button of your chimie.” 
  When Bill received this information,
    He used his pocket-handkerchie.

  “First let me say my catechism
    Which my poor mammy taught to me.” 
  “Make haste, make haste,” says guzzling Jimmy,
    While Jack pulled out his snickersnee.

  So Billy 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.

THE SOUTH COUNTRY
[Sidenote:  Hilaire Belloc]

  When I am living in the Midlands
    That are sodden and unkind,
  I light my lamp in the evening: 
    My work is left behind;
  And the great hills of the South Country
    Come back into my mind.

  The great hills of the South Country,
    They stand along the sea: 
  And it’s there walking in the high woods,
    That I could wish to be,
  And the men that were boys when I was a boy,
    Walking along with me.

  The men that live in North England,
    I saw them for a day: 
  Their hearts are set upon the waste fells,
    Their skies are fast and grey;
  From their castle walls a man may see
    The mountains far away.

  The men that live in West England
    They see the Severn strong,
  A-rolling on rough water brown
    Light aspen leaves along. 
  They have the secret of the rocks,
    And the oldest kind of song.

  But the men that live in the South Country
    Are the kindest and most wise,
  They get their laughter from the loud surf,
    And the faith in their happy eyes
  Comes surely from our Sister the Spring,
    When over the sea she flies;
  The violets suddenly bloom at her feet
    She blesses us with surprise.