Pure water it plays a good part in The swabbing the decks and all that-- And it finds its own level for sartin-- For it sartinly drinks very flat:-- For my part a drop of the creature I never could think was a fault, For if Tars should swig water by nature The sea would have never been salt!-- Then off with it into a jorum, And make it strong, sharpish, or sweet, For if I’ve any sense of decorum It never was meant to be neat!-- One day when I was but half sober,-- Half measures I always disdain-- I walk’d into a shop that sold Soda, And ax’d for some Water Champagne;-- Well, the lubber he drew and he drew, boys, Till I’d shipped my six bottles or more, And blow off my last limb but it’s true, boys, Why, I warn’t half so drunk as afore!-- Then off with it into a jorum, And make it strong, sharpish, or sweet, For if I’ve any sense of decorum It never was meant to be neat. [Illustration: A BOTTLE JACK.] [Illustration] THE BLACK AND WHITE QUESTION. “The game is made, gentlemen, choose your colour.” Amongst the many important topics which at present excite a popular interest, must be reckoned the great question whether the West Indian apprentices ought or ought not to be considered ought of their time? A subject presenting such very strong lights and shadows, necessarily produces a powerful and Rembrandt-like effect on the public mind; nevertheless, it is only lately and accidentally, that I have been induced to look critically into the colouring and handling of the picture. It is not my wont to walk wilfully on Debatable Ground; but in the present instance, I was seduced involuntarily into the dangerous confines of “all we love and all we hate,” the borderland, where party contends with party. A few days ago, I was giving an order to a tradesman in the Strand--_not far from Warren’s_--when, to the utter surprise and disconcertment of the master of the shop, a poor African stepped in from the street, and, with an obsequious bow, made an offer of his sable services for a term of years. [Illustration: “MASSA, YOU WANT A ’PRENTICE?”]