PUSS, JUNIOR, waved his paw to the old sailor, who put his pipe back in
his mouth and smoked away contentedly under the shady tree. All of a
sudden a pretty little girl jumped out from behind a stone wall.
"Bobby Shafto's gone to sea,
Silver buckles on his knee;
He'll come back and marry me,
Pretty Bobby Shafto.
Bobby Shafto's fat and fair,
Combing down his yellow hair;
He's my love for aye and ere,
Pretty Bobby Shafto."
"Hello," said Puss when she had finished her song.
"Did you just get off that pretty ship," she asked.
"Yes, Miss," replied Puss.
"Was Bobby Shafto on board?"
"I didn't see him," replied Puss. "Did you expect him?"
"I don't know," replied the little girl, "but I run down to look every
time a ship comes to the old dock. And I always ask the old sailor who
sits on the bench over there if he has seen my Bobby."
"You're looking for your Bobby, and I'm searching for my daddy," said
Puss, sadly. And then he told the little girl how discouraged he was
because in all his travels he had not yet found him.