"O sailor, tell me, tell me true,
Is my little lad--my Elihu--
A-sailing in your ship?"
The sailor's eyes were dimmed with dew.
"Your little lad? Your Elihu?"
He said with trembling lip;
"What little lad--what ship?"
What little lad?--as if there could be
Another such a one as he!
"What little lad, do you say?
Why, Elihu, that took to the sea
The moment I put him off my knee.
It was just the other day
The _Grey Swan_ sailed away."
The other day? The sailor's eyes
Stood wide open with surprise.
"The other day?--the _Swan?_"
His heart began in his throat to rise.
"Ay, ay, sir, here in the cupboard lies
The jacket he had on."
"And so your lad is gone!"
"Gone with the _Swan_." "And did she stand
With her anchor clutching hold of the sand
For a month, and never stir?"
"Why, to be sure! I've seen from the land,
Like a lover kissing his lady's hand,
The wild sea kissing her--
A sight to remember, sir."
"But, my good mother, do you know,
All this was twenty years ago?
I stood on the _Grey Swan's_ deck,
And to that lad I saw you throw--
Taking it off, as it might be so--
The kerchief from your neck;"
"Ay, and he'll bring it back."
"And did the little lawless lad,
That has made you sick and made you sad,
Sail with the _Grey Swan's_ crew?"
"Lawless! the man is going mad;
The best boy ever mother had;
Be sure, he sailed with the crew--
What would you have him do?"
"And he has never written line,
Nor sent you word, nor made you sign,
To say he was alive?"
"Hold--if 'twas wrong, the wrong is mine;
Besides, he may be in the brine;
And could he write from the grave?
Tut, man! what would you have?"
"Gone twenty years! a long, long cruise;
'Twas wicked thus your love to abuse;
But if the lad still live,
And come back home, think you you can
Forgive him?" "Miserable man!
You're mad as the sea; you rave--
What have I to forgive?"
The sailor twitched his shirt so blue,
And from within his bosom drew
The kerchief. She was wild:
"My God!--my Father!--is it true?
My little lad--my Elihu?
And is it?--is it?--is it you?
My blessed boy--my child--
My dead--my living child!"