Cicely Fox Smith

1 February 1882 – 8 April 1954 / Lymm, Cheshire

The Jonah

He brought the bad luck with him when first he came aboard;
That night we dragged the anchor in the roads where we were moored:
We sailed upon a Sunday, 'twas Friday that he came,
And we left our luck behind us, but we liked him all the same.

A wild nor'-easter started when we left the harbour first,
And all the weary voyage through we'd weather of the worst,
He'd tales to tell of hurricanes, and shipwrecks many a one,
And we thought there'd be another before the cruise was done.

But he left us at the last, when the seas and skies were blue,
In his bunk at break of day, as a common man might do:
And we'd weather fair as fair could be, but still we all were fain
To have our poor old Jonah and the bad luck back again.
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