THE SUPPER SUPERSTITION

A PAZHEZIC

BALLAD

"Oh flesh, flesh, how art thou fishified !"-SHAKSPEARE.

I.

WAS twelve o'clock by Chelsea chimes,

When all in hungry trim,

Good Mister Jupp sat down to sup

With wife, and Kate, and Jim.

II.

Said he, "Upon this dainty cod
How bravely I shall sup"-

When, whiter than the tablecloth,

A GHOST came rising up!

III.

"O father dear, O mother dear,

Dear Kate, and brother Jim—

You know when some one went to sea

Don't cry-but I am him!

IV.

"You hope some day with fond embrace

To greet your absent Jack,

But oh, I am come here to say

I'm never coming back!

V.

"From Alexandria we set sail,

With corn, and oil, and figs,

But steering too much Sow,' we struck

Upon the Sow and Pigs!

VI.

"The ship we pumped till we could see

Old England from the tops;

When down she went with all our hands,

Right in the Channel's Chops.

VII.

'Just give a look in Norey's chart,
The very place it tells;

I think it says twelve fathoms deep,
Clay bottom, mixed with shells.

VIII.

Well, there we are till 'hands aloft,'

We have at last a call;

The pug I had for brother Jim,

Kate's parrot too, and all.

IX.

"But oh, my spirit cannot rest

In Davy Jones's sod,

Till I've appeared to you and said—
Don't sup on that 'ere Cod!

X.

"You live on land, and little think

What passes in the sea; Last Sunday week, at 2 P.M., That Cod was picking me!

"Those oysters, too, that look so plump,

And seem so nicely done,

They put my corpse in many shells,

Instead of only one.

XII.

Oh, do not eat those oysters then, And do not touch the shrimps; When I was in my briny grave, They sucked my blood like imps!