Greetings

In Summer time when we all go Away down to the sea, There's one old sailor I don't know Who always speaks to me!

He only seems to stand and wait— For when I'm running by, I see him standing by his gate With a spy-glass at his eye.

But then he takes it down awhile— And I—I sort of stop, And he calls, with a little smile, "O hello—curly-top!"

I wore my middy suit one day— The cap says, "Ship a-hoy!"— And so I thought that he might say, "O hello—sailor-boy!"

He didn't. He just said the same; And when I went by with May, I said, "He doesn't know my name— But I know what he will say."

May is my sister, and so small She's just past baby size— And he said to her—(not me at all), "O hello—blue-bell eyes!"

One day my father looked at him Then gave a little nod— And said, "Now there's a sailor, Jim, As sea-sweet as a cod."