CHARLEY BUFF

Oh Charley Buff was his parents’ joy,

And as he always told,

He went to sea as a cabin-boy

Before he was one year old.

Chorus. Now this is pretty bad,

But it’s nothin’ to what’s a-coming:

Yet Charley he was a truthful lad,

And never indulged in humming.

And this Charley Buff allays said to me:

“To lie I cannot afford,

For you know I hev got more truth in me

Than all of the rest on board.

“I have seen in the isle of Barriboo

Such high-sized coco-nuts,

That the natives used to split ’em in two

And use ’em to make their huts.

“I hev seen the Kanaka women

Foller a ship’n full sail,

A thousand miles a-swimmin’

For a bottle or a tenpenny nail.

“I hev seen the eggs of the toodly-wang;

It’s a bird in the Muldive Isles;

And when they hatch they burst with a bang

You can hear five hundred miles.

“From a Cariboo king named Jocko,

A man of cheerful life,

For only a fid of tobacco

I bought me a beautiful wife.

“One night she was gone, by gum!

But as soon as ever I missed her,

From the king for a glass of rum

I bought her younger sister.

“One evening for their tea

Her family broiled and ate her;

‘Never mind!’ says the king to me,

‘Just go and pick out a better.’ ”

Chorus. Now this is pretty bad,

Yet it’s nothin’ to what’s a-coming;

But I hear the old man a bawlin’ like mad,

So I guess I will stop my humming.

“Wal,” answered Brown, “that comes it rather strong.

Now if you like I’ll sing a pirate’s song

Of which you all have heard at times a bit;

I’ve jined ’em into one to make ’em fit,

Like beads upon a string, altho’ I fear

It’s partly pirate and part mutineer.”