Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
A flimsy shift on a bunker cot
With a dirk slit sheer through the bosom spot
And the lace stiff dry in a purplish rot--
Or was she wench or shuddering maid,
She dared the knife and she took the blade--
Faith, there was stuff for a plucky Jade!
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!

Fifteen men on the Dead Man's Chest,
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil had done for the rest,
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
We wrapped 'em all in a mainsail tight
With twice ten turns of a hawser's bight,
And we heaved 'em over and out of sight
With a yo-heave-ho and a fare-ye-well,
And a sullen plunge in a sullen swell,
Ten fathoms along on the road to hell--
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!

[12] To observe liberties taken with the text, compare these verses
with authentic version.

* * * * *

_September 20, 1914._

Who that loves tales of adventure, thrilling yarns involving the
search for mysteriously lost treasure, has not gloried in "Treasure
Island"? And who that recalls STEVENSON's stirring romance does not
involuntarily chant to himself the ridiculous but none the leas
fascinating verse commencing

"Fifteen men on the Dead Man's Chest--"

as if the gruesome rhyme were in a way intended as a sort of
refrain for the entire story? When we were younger we undoubtedly
speculated on the amazing capacity of this particular dead man's
chest, and we gloated over the uncanny wickedness of the whole
affair. The verse, however, turns out to be one of those
curiosities of literature which is unearthed every now and then by
some industrious contributor to the "Query Page" of THE NEW YORK
TIMES BOOK REVIEW. In this number of the latter the entire song or
"chantey" is given, copied from an old scrapbook, and while it can
hardly be recommended as a delectable piece of literature, in any
sense, it is interesting, aside from its Stevensonian connection,
as a bit of rough, unstudied sailor's jingle, the very authorship
of which is long since forgotten. And the youthful myth of the Dead
Man's Chest--that, too, it appears, is not at all the thing that
fancy painted it. The real Dead Man's Chest, however, as "W. L."
explains it, is quite as alluring as the