"'Clouds are they, without water, carried away. And you'll be one of them, the way you're going, Daubing at silly pictures all the day, And praised by silly fools who're always blowing. And you choose this when you might go a-sowing, Casting the good corn into chosen mould That shall in time bring forth a hundredfold.' "So we went on, but in the end it ended. I felt I'd done a murder; I felt sick. There's much in human minds cannot be mended, And that, not I, played dad a cruel trick. There was one mercy: that it ended quick. I went to join my mother's brother: he Lived down the Severn. He was kind to me. "And there I learned house-painting for a living. I'd have been happy there, but that I knew I'd sinned before my father past forgiving, And that they sat at home, that silent two, Wearing the fire out and the evening through, Silent, defeated, broken, in despair, My plate unset, my name gone, and my chair. "I saw all that; and sister Jane came white-- White as a ghost, with fiery, weeping eyes. I saw her all day long and half the night, Bitter as gall, and passionate and wise. 'Joe, you have killed your father: there he lies. You have done your work--you with our mother's ways.' She said it plain, and then her eyes would blaze. "And then one day I had a job to do Down below bridge, by where the docks begin, And there I saw a clipper towing through, Up from the sea that morning, entering in. Raked to the nines she was, lofty and thin, Her ensign ruffling red, her bunts in pile, Beauty and strength together, wonder, style. "She docked close to the gates, and there she lay Over the water from me, well in sight; And as I worked I watched her all the day, Finding her beauty ever fresh delight. Her house-flag was bright green with strips of white; High in the sunny air it rose to shake Above the skysail poles most splendid rake." "And when I felt unhappy I would look Over the river at her, and her pride. So calm, so quiet, came as a rebuke To half the passionate pathways which I tried; And though the autumn ran its term and died, And winter fell and cold December came. She was still splendid there, and still the same. "Then on a day she sailed; but when she went My mind was clear on what I had to try: To see the sea and ships, and what they meant, That was the thing I longed to do; so I Drew and worked hard, and studied and put by, And thought of nothing else but that one end, But let all else go hang--love, money, friend. "And now I've shipped as Dauber I've begun. It was hard work to find a dauber's berth; I hadn't any friends to find me one, Only my skill, for what it may be worth; But I'm at sea now, going about the earth, And when the ship's paid off, when we return, I'll join some Paris studio and learn."