"
"Tell me, Sir," the youngster cried,
Crossing to the Captain's side
Of the sacred quarterdeck--
"How did you contrive the wreck
Of the cruiser you commanded
When she bumped the beach and stranded?"
You may say, "He is so brave he
Ought some day to rule the Navy."
Certainly he _ought_, but still
I'm afraid he never will;
For they talked to him so gruffly
And they handled him so roughly
That, when he was fit to drop
And the kindly Bloke said, "Stop!
Or you'll make him even madder;
He is wiser now and sadder,"
Ernest simply answered, "Ay, Sir,
You have _made_ me sad; but why, Sir?"
* * * * *
AEQUAM MEMENTO.
"I wonder," said Mary for the third time, "if we shall catch the tram at
the other end."
"Calmness," I told her--this for the second time--"is the essence of
comfortable travel. Meeting trouble half-way--"
"It isn't half-way," she said indignantly. "We're nearly there."
We were on a bus whose "route" terminated some five miles from home, which
we proposed to reach by a tram, and, the hour being late, it was our
chances of catching a car that were worrying Mary.
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