PIRATE TREASURE
A lady loved a swaggering rover,
The seven salt seas he voyaged over,
Bragged of a hoard none could discover,
Hey! Jolly Roger, O.
She bloomed in a mansion dull and stately,
And as to Meeting she walked sedately,
From the tail of her eye she liked him greatly,
Hey! Jolly Roger, O.
Rings in his ears and a red sash wore he,
He sang her a song and told her a story;
“I’ll make ye Queen of the Ocean!” swore he,
Hey! Jolly Roger, O.
She crept from bed by her sleeping sister;
By the old gray mill he met and kissed her.
Blue day dawned before they missed her,
Hey! Jolly Roger, O.
And while they prayed her out of Meeting,
Her wild little heart with bliss was beating,
As seaward went the lugger fleeting,
Hey! Jolly Roger, O.
Choose in haste and repent at leisure;
A buccaneer life is not all pleasure.
He set her ashore with a little treasure,
Hey! Jolly Roger, O.
Off he went where waves were dashing,
Knives were gleaming, cutlasses clashing;
And a ship on jagged rocks went crashing.
Hey! Jolly Roger, O.
Over his bones the tides are sweeping;
The only trace of the pirate sleeping
Is what he left in the lady’s keeping,
Hey! Jolly Roger, O.
Two hundred years is his name unspoken,
The secret of his hoard unbroken.
But a black-browed race wears the rover’s token,
Hey! Jolly Roger, O.
Sea-blue eyes that gleam and glisten,
Lips that sing—and you like to listen—
A swaggering song; it might be this one,
“Hey! Jolly Roger, O!”