A little book of tribune verse :: :: University of Virginia Library

The good ship “Buttered Sandwich” sailed,
Adown the briny bay;
The summer sky above was veiled,
With smiles and cloudlets gay,
While underneath the azure sea
In solemn grandeur rolled,
As on her course right merrily,
The “Buttered Sandwich” bowled.

But scarce a league away had sailed,
When Captain Cornbeef came,
And stood upon the deck and hailed
The gallant mate by name,
“Behold,” he muttered, “yonder cloud,
That broods o'er Boulder's shore,
Mayhap it is our winding shroud,
Leastwise, it grieves me sore.”

214

The maintop splintered like a stick,
While o'er the waves afar,
Were mingled fast and scattered thick,
Full many a beam and spar.

Oh 'twas a dreadful, dreadful night!
Upon the slimy deck
The passengers in demon fright,
Bemoaned the awful wreck.
The men rushed here, the women there,
The captain and the crew
Crouched by the bulwarks in despair,
Of what to say or do.

When lo! just as the ship careened
As if about to sink,
All o'er the rail a sailor leaned,
And wildly cried, “I think
I see a lifeboat come this way,
Manned by a sturdy boy,”
Then hope succeeded dire dismay,
And fear gave way to joy.

Aye, in his honest little yawl,
A youth pulled out from shore,
Unto the wreck and took them all,
Three hundred souls or more,
Back to the beach, where safe on land,
The passengers and crew,
Took the small hero by the hand
And told him “Good for you!”

215

No sooner had these words he said,
Than did the tempest burst,
Upon the good ship's fated head,
And each man knew the worst.
Some poets sing of heroes who
Toil in the eastern main,
To bring wrecked passengers and crew
Safe back to land again.
But Colorado poets are
To all such baubles stoic,
For here the seas are wilder far
And heroes more heroic.

June 5th, 1882.