‘I started up, for it sounded most horribly, and I looked round; but finding the rest all asleep I thought I had dreamed it, and so laid down again, but hardly had I done so when it was repeated, and this time louder than before; I started up up again, but could not tell what had caused it, until by chance my eyes rested upon the carcass of the dog which lay just beside the big ship’s coppers where fire was constantly kept, and messmates, what do you think I saw? I’ll tell you. The Newfoundland critter was _moving_. I jumped up in less than no time, and damme if we didn’t have him _thawed out_ so before daylight, that the captain sent down a middy to stop the noise below decks, the hungry scamp barked so loud.’ ‘Look here, Brace,’ said one, ‘that’s palarver.’ ‘No, no,’ said Brace, ‘all true, honor bright, messmates.’ ‘Do you mean really to say that that ere dog come to life again?’ asked another of the crew. ‘To be sure I do: there’s nothing very wonderful in that.’ ‘Well,’ added Terrence Moony, ‘you had the consolation of saving _a fellow crathur’s_ life eny way. Troth, and sich an act is’nt to be sneezed at, so give us your flipper, messmate.’ ‘Your yarn is all very well, Brace,’ said one of his messmates, ‘but that dog part _is_ rather a _dose_.’ ‘Never you mind that,’ said Brace, ‘and now I think of it, Marling, it’s your turn next.’ ‘Yes, yes, it’s your turn next,’ said half a dozen voices at once. ‘For the matter of that I believe you’re all right,’ said Marling good naturedly, ‘avast there.’ And after rolling his quid about his mouth for a few minutes, and hesitating for a moment, said: ‘I say, messmates, you must let me off with a song; fact is, I can’t think of any yarn just now, how will that do?’ ‘Oh yes, a song, a song, give us a song,’ they all cried together. ‘Well then, here goes a song to old hoary Neptune. MARLING’S SONG. ```Ho, ye--ho Messmates, we’ll sing ```The glories of Neptune, the ocean king, ```He reigns o’er the waters, the wide sea’s his home, ```Ho ye--ho, in his kingdom we roam.= ```He spreads a blue carpet all over the sea, ```O’er which our bark walks daintily-- ```Though down at the bottom the old monarch hails, ```He blows the fresh wind plump into our sails.= ```Landsmen who live on the dull, tame shore, ```Love their homes, but ours we love more: ```Oh! a ship and salt water, messmates, for me-- ```There’s nothing on earth like the open sea.= ```Landsmen are green boys, I have a notion ```They don’t know the fun that’s had on the ocean; ```But contented they live in one spot all their lives, ```Like honey bees, messmates, they stick to their hives.= ```What though we have storms? They’ve earthquakes on shore, ```And though we have troubles, they surely have more; ```We gather rare food ‘mong the isles of the sea. ```When the tropical fruit grows, there boys, are we.= ```Ah! give us the ocean; nought but the sea ```Is a fit home, messmates, for hearts that are free.