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Poetry Gallery
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The Taking of the Totems
(by the author and others--To be sung to the music of "The Midship Mite")
'Twas in '99 and the day was bright,
       Cheerily,my friends, yo ho!
An abandoned village hove in sight,
And up comes a scientific witless wight;
       Cheerily, my friends, yo ho!
Who'll go ashore today with me,
And gather some totems--any two or three?"
"Why, bless you, man, that's the job for 'we'!"
       Cheerily, my friends, yo ho!
       Cheerily, my friends, yo ho!
With a long, long pull and a strong, strong pull,
At the bottle to help us through;
And we drank without stint to the 'science gent.'
Who showed us the thing to do.
We launched the [?] which puffed like a Turk,
       Gleefully, my friends, yo ho!
With ropes and shovels we were soon at work,
And dug and tugged with never a shirk;
       Hopefully, my friends, yo ho!
We pulled and strained till the light grew shy,
Till our hands were blistered and our tongues were dry,
but those figures still grinned at the stars in the sky;
       Cheerily, my friends, yo ho!
       Cheerily, my friends, yo ho!
With a long, long curse and a strong, strong curse.
At the comrade who made us sore,
We slipped away to our ship in the bay,
Vowing we'd work no more
The 'boss' know nothing of Indian lore;
       Happily, my friends, yo ho!
he got very wet and midly swore,
As in raiment scant he paced the shore,
       "I'll have'm yet, my friends, yo ho!
Just let 'pure science!' have its fling,
Then I'll show them how to do this thing!"
And he sent for the crew who came with a swing,
       Cheerily, my friends, yo ho!
       Mockingly, my friends, yo ho!
  With a long, long pull and strong, strong pull
The trophies came down with a din,
But we'll tell later on to our friends in town,
how WE gathered those totems in.
Fox Point, Alaska,July 27,1899.
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