"When I was older, and bold as you please, I shipped on the good ship Firkin of Cheese, For a v'yage of discovery in the far South Seas, To gather up a cargo of ambergris That grows in a cave on the amber trees Where the medicine men, all fine M.D.'s, For the sake of the usual medical fees, Crawl in by night on their hands and knees In a strictly ethical manner to seize The amber fruit that is used to grease The itching palm in Shekel's Disease,-- On a long long v'yage, as busy as bees, Never stopping for a moment to take our ease, Never changing our course, except when the breeze Took to blowing to windward,--we had slipped by degrees Down the oozy slopes of the Hebrides, And passed through the locks of the Florida Keys, Which in getting through was a rather tight squeeze, But danger is nothing to men like these, When suddenly the lookout, a Portuguese Who had better been below a-shelling peas, Shrieked out, 'They are coming! By twos and threes! On the starboard bow! We are lost!--" "We're lost! we're lost! we're lost!" came a terrible cry from the forward part of the ship, as if in echo of Mr. Mizzen's song. "We're lost! The dippers! The dippers!" Everyone jumped up, even Aunt Amanda. The Cabin-boy whispered in Freddie's ear, in great excitement, "N-n-n-now you'll s-see!" A man came running down the deck, followed by all the skippers and mates. As he halted before Mr. Mizzen, he was evidently the Cook, by the white cook's cap he wore on his head. He took off his cap and wiped his forehead with his hand. He was in a state of mixed alarm and anger. "We're lost!" he cried, and actually tore his hair with his hands. "It's that rascally Cabin-boy! The dippers is gone! Every last one of them! And the ship leakin' by the barrelful! Let me get at that boy once, and I'll learn him! Fryin' on a slow fire would be too good for him! Swore he'd get even, he did, and now he's gone and done it! Stole all the dippers--he's the one that done it, you can bet your last biscuit! There ain't a dipper left in the ship, and the water pourin' in by the barrelful! I just found it out, while them lazy skippers and mates was lying around doing nothing! Gimme one sea-cook for all the skippers on the ocean, that's what I say! Every last dipper gone! gone! We're lost!" Everyone looked around for the Cabin-boy. He was nowhere to be seen, but his laugh was heard overhead, and his face was then seen looking down from the rigging just above.