“Little Boy-sailor, with jacket of blue,
Fond hearts at home have been thinking of you;
Dreaming the long nights, and thinking all day,
Of a darling boy-sailor, while he was away;
And when the ship sail’d away, oh! how they cried,
Mother and sister, and—some one beside.”
“Dear little Golden-hair, I will tell thee
What I saw, what I heard, on the deep sea:
As I sat all alone, on the mast high,
A sea-maiden, singing and swimming, came by;
Combing her tangled and silken-green hair,
Thus she sang sweetly, that sea-maiden fair:
“‘Little Boy-sailor, with jacket of blue,
Mother and sister are thinking of you;
He, too, forgets not, where’er he may roam,
Mother and sister, and sweet, sweet home;
But a something makes little boy-sailor’s eyes dim,
When he’s thinking of some one—who’s thinking of him.’
“So she pass’d swimming, and swimming she sang;
And in mine ears the sweet music still rang;
And I felt, on the mast as I sat all alone,
Millions of tiny threads over me thrown;
Threads by the silk-worm in Fairyland spun—
I felt them all over, but couldn’t see one;
But I knew that the magic web only could be
Thrown by kind Fairies across the wide sea,
To bind little Golden-hair closer to me.”