derek@uwvax.UUCP (Derek Zahn) (01/21/85)
THE BALLAD OF DANDY JIM BAYLOR
Chapter the first, in which Dandy Jim and crew encounter a storm.
There once was a sailor
Named Dandy Jim Baylor,
The luckiest man on the sea;
And this is a tale
Of his hunting a whale
And his romance with Minnie McGee.
Well, Dandy Jim Baylor
Would never turn pale, or
Ever get green at the gills,
When storms got so rough
That men, otherwise tough,
Would turn tail and head straight for the hills.
Now once Jim was out
With his crew and his boat
When the clouds turned the noonday sun black.
It was then that they saw
With mixed fear and awe
It become far too late to turn back.
The storm broke with thunder,
The crew scuttled under,
And left Jim alone on the deck,
While the wrath of the gale
Made shreds of the sail
And tossed the ship 'round like a speck.
Well this got Jim sore --
with a curse and a roar,
He challenged the storm to a duel.
The wind raged anew
And Jim's wet, afeared crew
Said, "Jim Baylor is brave, but a fool."
Hither and yon,
The duel carried on --
Its force made the ship's timbers creak;
The storm's hail and sleet
A good match for the heat
Of an Irishman's wrath at its peak.
Atlantis was sank
In that storm, to be frank,
The thunder-god Thor went and hid.
Sea creatures fled
The uproar, at their head,
Their 60 foot king of a squid.
It finally ended --
The storm was expended
In two weeks, a day, and an hour.
The crew gave a shout,
and danced all about
And drank toasts to Dandy Jim's power.
But the ship was a wreck --
It leaked, and their trek
Had stranded them far far from home.
When the sails had been tattered
Their hopes had been shattered
Of sailing the cold briny foam.
Their morale was sinking
And soon they were thinking
They might never get home at all.
Their hopes had hit zero --
They needed a hero,
And once more Dandy Jim got the call.
He examined his crew,
Shook his head at a few
With pride in his stance like a king;
Took his pipe from his mouth,
Spit North and spit South.
With a gleam in his eye he did sing:
"I"m Dandy Jim Baylor,
The world's greatest sailor,
Sing lie dee-dee lie dee-dee dee.
That storm I put down
With Naught more than a frown --
I'm the best man who e'er sailed the sea.
I'll get us to land
If you give me a hand,
Sing lie dee-dee lie dee-dee dee.
To replace our rent sail,
We must first hunt a whale;
Then just leave the rest up to me."
The crew did a jig
And joined in quite big
On the "Lie dee-dee lie dee-dee dee"'s.
They agreed to his plan,
Then all, to a man,
Made a feast of their last wine and cheese.
derek
Anyone want me to write chapter the second?
--
Derek Zahn @ wisconsin
...!{allegra,heurikon,ihnp4,seismo,sfwin,ucbvax,uwm-evax}!uwvax!derek
derek@wisc-rsch.arpa