CHARLEY BUFF
Oh Charley Buff was his parents’ joy,
And as he always told,
He to sea as a cabin-boy
Before he was one year old.
Chorus. Now this is bad,
But it’s nothin’ to what’s a-coming:
Yet Charley he was a lad,
And in humming.
And this Charley Buff said to me:
“To I cannot afford,
For you know I got more truth in me
Than all of the on board.
“I have in the of Barriboo
Such high-sized coco-nuts,
That the used to ’em in two
And use ’em to make their huts.
“I the Kanaka women
Foller a ship’n full sail,
A thousand miles a-swimmin’
For a bottle or a nail.
“I the eggs of the toodly-wang;
It’s a bird in the Muldive Isles;
And when they they with a bang
You can five hundred miles.
“From a Cariboo king named Jocko,
A man of life,
For only a of tobacco
I me a wife.
“One night she was gone, by gum!
But as soon as I missed her,
From the king for a of rum
I her sister.
“One for their tea
Her family and ate her;
‘Never mind!’ says the king to me,
‘Just go and out a better.’ ”
Chorus. Now this is bad,
Yet it’s nothin’ to what’s a-coming;
But I the old man a bawlin’ like mad,
So I I will stop my humming.
“Wal,” answered Brown, “that comes it strong.
Now if you like I’ll sing a pirate’s song
Of which you all have at times a bit;
I’ve ’em into one to make ’em fit,
Like upon a string, altho’ I fear
It’s and part mutineer.”
