The Handsome Cabin Boy

	'Tis of a pretty female
	As you may understand.
	Her mind being bent for rambling
	Unto some foreign land,
	She dressed herself in sailor's clothes,
	Or so it does appear,
	And she hired with a captain
	To serve him for a year.

		[The captain's wife she being on board,
		She seemed in great joy
		To think the captain had engaged
		Such a handsome cabin boy,
		That now and then she'd slip him a kiss,
		And she'd have liked to toy,
		But 'twas the captain found out the secret
		Of the handsome cabin boy.]	verse missed by KB

	Her cheeks they were like roses
	And her hair rolled in a curl.
	The sailors often smiled and said
	He looked just like a girl.
	But eating of the captain's biscuit
	Her colour did destroy,
	And the waist did swell of pretty Nell,
	The handsome cabin boy.

	'Twas in the bay of Biscay
	Our gallant ship did plow.
	One night among the sailors
	Was a fearful flurry and row.
	They tumbled from their hammocks
	For their sleep it did destroy,
	And they sworn about the groaning
	Of the handsome cabin boy.

	"Oh doctor, dear, oh doctor,"
	The cabin boy did cry.
	"My time has come, I am undone,
	And I will surely die."
	The doctor come a-runnin'
	And a-smilin' at the fun.
	To think a sailor lad should have
	A daughter or a son.

	The sailors when they saw the joke
	They all did stand and stare.
	The child belonged to none of them,
	They solemnly did swear.
	The captain's wife, she says to him,
	"My dear, I wish you joy,
	For 'tis either you or me's betrayed
	The handsome cabin boy!"

		[Now sailors, take your tot of rum
		And drink success to trade,
		And likewise to the cabin boy
		That was neither man nor maid.
		Here's hoping the wars don't rise again
		Our sailors to destroy,
		And here's hoping for a jolly lot more
		Like the handsome cabin boy.]	verse missed by KB


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Copyright Kate Bush Music Ltd.