128 ALL AFLOAT 



query from the bunt. ' Ay, ay, sir ! ' ' Haul 

 out to windward ! ' Eh — hai, o — ho, o — ho — oh ! 

 1 Far enough, sir ? ' ' Haul out to leeward 1 ' 

 Eh— hai, o—ho, o—ho—oh ! ' That '11 do ! Tie 

 her up and don't miss any points ! ' ' Right- 

 oh ! Lay down from aloft and set the sail ! ' 

 Yo — ho, yo — hai, yo — ho — oh ! Then the chanty 

 rises from the swaying men, rises and falls, in 

 wavering bursts of sound, as if the gale was 

 whirling it about : 



Blow the man down, blow the man down, 

 'Way-ho ! Blow the man down. 

 Blow the man down from Liverpool town ; 

 Give us some wind to blow the man down. 



And so the gallant ship goes outward- 

 bound ; and homeward-bound the same. At 

 last she's back in Halifax, after a series of 

 adventures that would set an ordinary lands- 

 man up for life. But the only thing the Nova 

 Scotian papers say of her is this : ' Arrived 

 from sea with general cargo — ship Victoria, 

 John Smith, master, ninety days from Val- 

 paraiso. All well.' 



No mention of that terrible Antarctic hurri- 

 cane ? No ' heroes ' ? No heroics ? 



It 's all in the day's work there. 



