k!
Begone to thy father, old Sootie,
Pure _wine_ now I'll drink,
So Jack, I should think,
Of me thou wilt never make booty,
Yellow Jack!

"But a third time he came, and seized hold of my head;
'Twas in vain that the doctor both blister'd and bled;
My hand, and my side, and my heart too, I think,
Would soon have been lost, though pure wine I might drink."

_Chorus_.

"Yellow Jack! Yellow Jack! hie thee hack! hie thee back!
Begone to thy father, old Sootie.
Pure wine now we'll drink,
So Jack, we should think,
Of us thou wilt never make booty,
Yellow Jack!

"Brandy!" shouted the major. "Brandy--he's a craven who shirks the
call." There was no one there craven but myself. My youth excused my
apostacy from the night's orgies. The major resumed, his red face
intensely hot and arid:

"Yellow Jack! Yellow Jack! hie thee back! hie thee back
To the helldam, Corruption, thy mother;
For with _brandy_ I'll save
My heart, and thus brave
Thee, and fell Death, thine own brother
Yellow Jack!

"To brandy I took, then Jack took his leave,
Brandy-punch and neat brandy drink morn, noon, and eve,
At night drink, then sleep, and be sure, my brave boys,
Naught will quell Yellow Jack but neat brandy and noise."

_The Chorus_ (most uproariously).

"Yellow Jack! Yellow Jack! hie thee back! hie thee back!
To the helldam, Corruption, thy mother;
For with brandy we'll save
Our hearts, and thus brave
Thee, and fell Death, thine own brother,
Yellow Jack!"

At last "Yellow Jack" was thundered out loud enough to awake his victims
from the palisades. The company were just then fit for anything, but
certainly most fit for mischief. Our first-lieutenant intimated to me
that our jolly-boat was waiting to take the junior officers on board--
considerate man--so I took the hint, marvelling much upon the scene that
I had just witnessed.

Whether or not there was any mystic virtue in the exorcisory cantation
of the previous night I cannot determine; but it is certain that, next
morning, though headaches abounded among our officers, indications of
the yellow fever there were none.

CHAPTER FORTY FIVE.

INSUBORDINATION FOLLOWED BY ELEVATION--A MIDSHIPMAN TRICED UP IN
MID-AIR, AFFORDING A PRACTICAL LESSON ON OSCILLATION--ALL TRUCK AND NO
BARTER.

But as it is not my intention to write a diary of my life, which was
like all other midshipmen's lives in the West