Told In the Basin
(A Canal Idyl).
Noontime in Atlantic Basin —
Sailor lads in greasy dress
Slid from spars of stately traders
Down the forward hatch to mess.
Rattling chain and creaking tackle
Smote no longer on the ear,
Dappled sunshine ran in ripples
On the string-piece of the pier.
Even the grim grain elevators
Seemed to stop their chronic din
Just to watch two people talking
On the grain-boat, Nellie Gwynne .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
" Doctor, howdy! Glad to see you!
Ah, the girl! She's doin' well,
She'll be up on deck direckl'y;
Have a smoke and stay a spell.
" Doctor, I'd give half a dollar
If I jest could speak my thought;
But I can't string words together
So's to thank ye as I ought.
" Why, if you knew all the story,
How it happened, years ago,
Guess you wouldn't blame me swearin'
That I couldn't let her go.
" Doctor, I could tell you some things
That I never told a pal;
But I'll tell you since you didn't
Let the fever take the gal.
" T'was in sixty-six I picked up
All the loose change I could float,
And to keep it above water
Bought an interest in this boat.
" Just the year before I'd married —
Wife was never very strong —
So she stayed, sometimes, with her folks
While I boated. P'raps 'twas wrong.
" Right here, Doc., you mustn't gamble
Anything was wrong with her!
Heaven bless her! What's the matter
With my eyes? Sometimes they blur.
" So she stayed this time I'm tellin' —
House was just b'low the locks —
While I took my turn at Buffalo
By the elevator docks.
" Jim Deyoe was just beside me —
You know how we tie together —
Jim I'd always counted on —
Friend in any kind o' weather.
" Well, I'd just been to the office;
Got a letter, too, from home;
Wife wrote she was feelin' lonesome —
Kinder sick — she wish't I'd come.
" When I got down to the feeder,
Gad! I trembled on my feet;
My boat lay behind a dozen —
Jim's was takin' in the wheat!
" Why, 'twas days before I loaded,
And it seemed my head would swim;
I've give up all other cussin'
Just to damn that traitor — Jim.
" 'Course he could have kept me by him —
Loaded both boats, end and end —
But he took a mean advantage,
Cut me loose as was his friend.
" No, I never asked the reason —
That's the last I heard o' Jim —
There's a drink, though, that I owe him —
Cup o' sorrer — to the brim!
" Well, I started back a' hopin',
After all, things wasn't bad;
One hour thinkin' o' my woman —
Then o' Jim and almost mad.
" Couldn't find a man with gumption,
Somehow, fit to run the boat;
And as captain I was holdin'
Fer the cargo when afloat.
" Ever much to star-gaze, Doctor?
I'd mind deck there in the night,
Hold the tiller and just watch 'em
Till they faded out o' sight.
" And I guess they made me patient,
Or I'd never stood it all;
Doc., when one is in a hurry,
Hang a mule and the canawl!
" Well, I missed her light a-burnin'
When we stopped above the locks,
I made one run fer that cottage —
In I goes and never knocks.
" Oh, you're used to jest such stories,
But I'll finish — once begun —
Most men never lose but one wife —
And I'll never lose but one.
" There were two a-waitin' fer me —
One was dead and one asleep;
She had left her little pictur',
In that girl fer me to keep.
" I have told ye all the story —
Jim's name, yes — t'was Jim Deyoe.
Yours, too? That's so — I forgot it —
Curus, ain't it now — by Joe!
" What? You knew him? He your father?
He the man? Go slow! you say
He fell off — drowned in the Hudson
When the towboat broke away?
" Say, I couldn't stand no triflin'!
But I've always stood the truth.
Jim! Jim Deyoe! Then it's gospel
He's the man that saved my Ruth.
" Why, when that big hawser parted,
All the boats began to spread,
Ruth fell in — then some one caught her —
But the boats closed o'er his head.
" Well, well, well! Now what's forgiveness?
I would throw Jim now a line,
But his dock's paid in a basin
When his craft's ahead o' mine.
" Doctor! There's your bill — you take it.
Make it foot a little more —
Savin' Ruth twice in succession —
But it can't be paid in ore.
" Eh? You want the girl? Well, really,
Now ye tech me! Well, well, well!
Guess the boat without the bird in
Would be like an empty shell.
" Ruth, sir? Why, she's like her mother —
Jest that trim-like, in her wrap —
When we go to th' floatin' chapel,
Or to hear old Halsey Knapp,
" You would see the people lookin' —
And I sized up what it meant —
That canal-boats could hold beauties
If they didn't pay high rent.
" Guess the gang-plank could tell stories
Of consid'able many feet
Come to visit Ruthie's cabin
Cos 'twas brightest in the fleet.
" But you're tirin' o' my talkin',
And you'd rather list to her'n;
As to me, I'll stick the closer
To the name upon the stern.
" If she says so, Doctor, take her,
Keep her. Come here, daughter Ruth.
If she loves ye she will say it —
She's a girl as speaks the truth. "
Noontime in Atlantic Basin —
Sailor lads in greasy dress
Slid from spars of stately traders
Down the forward hatch to mess.
Rattling chain and creaking tackle
Smote no longer on the ear;
Dappled sunshine ran in ripples
On the stringpiece of the pier;
While the grim old elevators
Seemed to stop their chronic din
Just to watch two people talking
On the grain-boat — Nellie Gwynne .
Noontime in Atlantic Basin —
Sailor lads in greasy dress
Slid from spars of stately traders
Down the forward hatch to mess.
Rattling chain and creaking tackle
Smote no longer on the ear,
Dappled sunshine ran in ripples
On the string-piece of the pier.
Even the grim grain elevators
Seemed to stop their chronic din
Just to watch two people talking
On the grain-boat, Nellie Gwynne .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
" Doctor, howdy! Glad to see you!
Ah, the girl! She's doin' well,
She'll be up on deck direckl'y;
Have a smoke and stay a spell.
" Doctor, I'd give half a dollar
If I jest could speak my thought;
But I can't string words together
So's to thank ye as I ought.
" Why, if you knew all the story,
How it happened, years ago,
Guess you wouldn't blame me swearin'
That I couldn't let her go.
" Doctor, I could tell you some things
That I never told a pal;
But I'll tell you since you didn't
Let the fever take the gal.
" T'was in sixty-six I picked up
All the loose change I could float,
And to keep it above water
Bought an interest in this boat.
" Just the year before I'd married —
Wife was never very strong —
So she stayed, sometimes, with her folks
While I boated. P'raps 'twas wrong.
" Right here, Doc., you mustn't gamble
Anything was wrong with her!
Heaven bless her! What's the matter
With my eyes? Sometimes they blur.
" So she stayed this time I'm tellin' —
House was just b'low the locks —
While I took my turn at Buffalo
By the elevator docks.
" Jim Deyoe was just beside me —
You know how we tie together —
Jim I'd always counted on —
Friend in any kind o' weather.
" Well, I'd just been to the office;
Got a letter, too, from home;
Wife wrote she was feelin' lonesome —
Kinder sick — she wish't I'd come.
" When I got down to the feeder,
Gad! I trembled on my feet;
My boat lay behind a dozen —
Jim's was takin' in the wheat!
" Why, 'twas days before I loaded,
And it seemed my head would swim;
I've give up all other cussin'
Just to damn that traitor — Jim.
" 'Course he could have kept me by him —
Loaded both boats, end and end —
But he took a mean advantage,
Cut me loose as was his friend.
" No, I never asked the reason —
That's the last I heard o' Jim —
There's a drink, though, that I owe him —
Cup o' sorrer — to the brim!
" Well, I started back a' hopin',
After all, things wasn't bad;
One hour thinkin' o' my woman —
Then o' Jim and almost mad.
" Couldn't find a man with gumption,
Somehow, fit to run the boat;
And as captain I was holdin'
Fer the cargo when afloat.
" Ever much to star-gaze, Doctor?
I'd mind deck there in the night,
Hold the tiller and just watch 'em
Till they faded out o' sight.
" And I guess they made me patient,
Or I'd never stood it all;
Doc., when one is in a hurry,
Hang a mule and the canawl!
" Well, I missed her light a-burnin'
When we stopped above the locks,
I made one run fer that cottage —
In I goes and never knocks.
" Oh, you're used to jest such stories,
But I'll finish — once begun —
Most men never lose but one wife —
And I'll never lose but one.
" There were two a-waitin' fer me —
One was dead and one asleep;
She had left her little pictur',
In that girl fer me to keep.
" I have told ye all the story —
Jim's name, yes — t'was Jim Deyoe.
Yours, too? That's so — I forgot it —
Curus, ain't it now — by Joe!
" What? You knew him? He your father?
He the man? Go slow! you say
He fell off — drowned in the Hudson
When the towboat broke away?
" Say, I couldn't stand no triflin'!
But I've always stood the truth.
Jim! Jim Deyoe! Then it's gospel
He's the man that saved my Ruth.
" Why, when that big hawser parted,
All the boats began to spread,
Ruth fell in — then some one caught her —
But the boats closed o'er his head.
" Well, well, well! Now what's forgiveness?
I would throw Jim now a line,
But his dock's paid in a basin
When his craft's ahead o' mine.
" Doctor! There's your bill — you take it.
Make it foot a little more —
Savin' Ruth twice in succession —
But it can't be paid in ore.
" Eh? You want the girl? Well, really,
Now ye tech me! Well, well, well!
Guess the boat without the bird in
Would be like an empty shell.
" Ruth, sir? Why, she's like her mother —
Jest that trim-like, in her wrap —
When we go to th' floatin' chapel,
Or to hear old Halsey Knapp,
" You would see the people lookin' —
And I sized up what it meant —
That canal-boats could hold beauties
If they didn't pay high rent.
" Guess the gang-plank could tell stories
Of consid'able many feet
Come to visit Ruthie's cabin
Cos 'twas brightest in the fleet.
" But you're tirin' o' my talkin',
And you'd rather list to her'n;
As to me, I'll stick the closer
To the name upon the stern.
" If she says so, Doctor, take her,
Keep her. Come here, daughter Ruth.
If she loves ye she will say it —
She's a girl as speaks the truth. "
Noontime in Atlantic Basin —
Sailor lads in greasy dress
Slid from spars of stately traders
Down the forward hatch to mess.
Rattling chain and creaking tackle
Smote no longer on the ear;
Dappled sunshine ran in ripples
On the stringpiece of the pier;
While the grim old elevators
Seemed to stop their chronic din
Just to watch two people talking
On the grain-boat — Nellie Gwynne .
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