,
Full of life and full of glee,
And he went a courting Molly Nailor,
A maiden fair of high degree.

"That maiden fair was my mother. Billy Taylor, do ye see, went a
courting her, and swore that he loved her better than the apple of his
eye, or a shipload of prize-money, and no end of glasses of grog, and
fifty other things, and that her cheeks were like roses from Persia, and
her breath sweeter than the essence of all the gales of Araby that ever
blew, and all that sort of thing. She believed him, for she was young
and tender hearted, and did not know what horrible falsehoods some men
can tell. I do hate a fellow who doesn't speak the truth. Now, do ye
see, that scoundrel Taylor was only bamboozling her all the time, for he
went away and fell in with another lady who had more of the shiners,
though less beauty, and he having brought to bear the whole broadside of
false oaths he had been firing away at my respected mother, the other
lady struck her flag and became his wife. Like other wid blades of his
stamp, he soon ran through all the poor girl's money, so he wasn't a bit
the better for it, and she was very much the worse. When she had no
more left for him to lay his hand on, he had to go to sea again.

"My mother, who was not my mother then, you'll understand, because I
wasn't born till some years after that,--and I'm proud to say that my
father was a very different man to Billy Taylor. He was an honest man;
and when Miss Nailor found out all about Billy Taylor's treachery, she
resolved to be avenged on him. He had entered on board the Thunder
bomb, and she heard of it. Accordingly she rigged herself out in a suit
of seaman's clothes, and as her father was a seaman,--an officer, of
course, (my parentage was respectable on both sides)--and she knew all
about seamen's ways and sayings, she very easily passed for one.

"One fine morning, off she set in her new toggery for Portsmouth, where
the Thunder was fitting out. She had provided herself with a loaded
pistol, which she kept in her pocket, vowing to revenge herself on the
traitor Taylor.

"As the Thunder was short of hands, the captain was very glad to enter
the smart young seaman she seemed to be when she presented herself
before him.

"Billy Taylor was aboard, and when she caught sight of his face she had
some difficulty in keeping her fingers off it, I believe you. Not that
she was otherwise, I'll have you understand, than a mild tempered w