Frankies Trade

by Rudyard Kipling

　　

---

Old Horn to All Atlantic said: (A-hay O! To me O!) "Now where did Frankie learn his trade? For he ran me down with a three-reef mains'I." (All round the Horn!) Atlantic answered: "Not from me! You'd better ask the cold North Sea, For he ran me down under all plain canvas." (All round the Horn!) The North Sea answered: "He's my man, For he came to me when he began, Frankie Drake in an open coaster. (All round the Sands!) "I caught him young and I used him sore, So you never shall startle Frankie more, Without capsizing Earth and her waters. (All round the Sands!) "I did not favour him at all. I made him pull and I made him haul, And stand his trick with the common sailors. (All round the Sands!) "I froze him stiff and I fogged him blind, And kicked him home with his road to find By what he could see in a three-day snow-storm. (All round the Sands!) "I learned him his trade o' winter nights, 'Twixt Mardyk Fort and Dunkirk lights, On a five-knot tide with the forts a-firing. (All round the Sands!) "Before his beard began to shoot, I showed him the length of the Spaniard's foot, And I reckon he clapped the boot on it later. (All round the Sands!) "If there's a risk which you can make, That's worse than he was used to take Nigh every week in the way of his business; (All round the Sands!) "If there's a trick that you can try, Which he hasn't met in time gone by, Not once or twice, but ten times over; (All round the Sands!) "If you can teach him aught that's new, (A-hay O! To me O!) I'll give you Bruges and Niewport too, And the ten tall churches that stand between Storm along, my gallant Captains! (All round the Horn!)

---

---