StoryTitle("caps", "Little Billee") ?>
Billee," by William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-63), finds a
place here because it carries a good lesson good-naturedly rendered.
An accomplished teacher recommends it, and I recollect two young children
in Chicago who sang it frequently for years without getting tired of it.
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "There were three sailors of Bristol city", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Who took a boat and went to sea.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But first with beef and captain's biscuits", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And pickled pork they loaded she.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "There was gorging Jack and guzzling Jimmy,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And the youngest he was little Billee.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Now when they got so far as the Equator", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "They'd nothing left but one split pea.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Says gorging Jack to guzzling Jimmy,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "\"I am extremely hungaree.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To gorging Jack says guzzling Jimmy,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "\"We've nothing left, us must eat we.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Says gorging Jack to guzzling Jimmy,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "\"With one another, we shouldn't agree!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "There's little Bill, he's young and tender,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "We're old and tough, so let's eat he.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Oh! Billy, we're going to kill and eat you,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "So undo the button of your chemie.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "When Bill received this information", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "He used his pocket-handkerchie.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"First let me say my catechism,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Which my poor mammy taught to me.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Make haste, make haste,\" says guzzling Jimmy", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "While Jack pulled out his snickersnee.", "") ?>
PagePoem(42, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "So Billy went up to the main-topgallant mast,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And down he fell on his bended knee.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He scarce had come to the Twelfth Commandment", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "When up he jumps, \"There's land I see.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Jerusalem and Madagascar,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And North and South Amerikee:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "There's the British flag a-riding at anchor,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "With Admiral Napier, K.C.B.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "So when they got aboard of the Admiral's", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "He hanged fat Jack and flogged Jimmee;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But as for little Bill, he made him", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The Captain of a Seventy-three.", "") ?>
PoemAttribution("100", SmallCapsText("William Makepeace Thackeray.")) ?>
PoemEnd() ?>