"_The Ghost on Board Ship_."
I have followed the say, man and boy, any time these thirty years and
more; and sure it's but little I have to tell you about that same in the
way of short commons, long voyages, mishaps, and shipwrecks that would
be interesting to you, seeing that, in all rasonable probability, you
have all of you had your fair share of the like.
However, maybe I can spin you a short yarn about what every one of you
hasn't seen, and that is a "ghost on boord ship."
"A ghost on board ship!" chorused the sailors, turning eagerly toward
the speaker.
Bedad, ye may say that, and as fine a ghost as ever mortial man set eyes
upon.
You must know I was always partial to the say, and first tried my hand
at a sailor's life wid a cousin of my mother's, who had a small sloop he
used for fishing along the coast off the Cove of Cork.
It was on boord the little _Shamrock_ I got my say-legs, and, by the
same token, many a sharp rope's-ending into the bargain.
I had plinty to ate, and plinty to drink, and plinty of hard work, too,
as there were but three hands on boord--my cousin, one man, and myself,
making up the entire crew.