Island Idyll

It's a skip and a jump
to the Pacific, oh!
To the shimmering shores
of the Ga-la-pa-go,

Where in minutes I met
with rep-tilian romance
A tap on her shell and
"May I have this dance?"

And by moonlight we snuggle
and wiggle and woggle,
and woo by the light of the sea,
She swears that she'll love me,
smooch and bear-hug me
from here to E-ter-ni-ty,




So with Therese the Tortuga,
I set sail for Bermuda
And savored the hours at sea,
Til we rounded a bend
(our idyll's sad end...)
that no one but He could foresee.

While snacking on oysters
I quipped about cloisters
and sent her rollicking back on her shell

"Ha-ha-ha"
"Ho-ho-ho!"
She gasped and she choked
Unable to stand on her feet.

I dove to her rescue,
but slipped on a roux
and slid off the deck,
to the froth be-loo...

Her fits were acute,
and the oyster took root
And she gasped her last words,
"Oh, Pigg, what a hoot!"

Try as I did to scale the rope
Remorse had set in, I lost all hope
Guilty as charged, it was I who had erred
Mine was the last fatal joke that she heard.

As for the rest, it needn't be said
it is bad for the heart, it's bad for the head
I had lost my true shell-mate
in a mishap at sea...

"Dear Therese, please forgive me,
'twas meant in good fun,
how did I know that this was the one
the quote that would tickle your funny bone so,
that into that good night you would swiftly go?

Remember I loved you for a season at sea
Remember the biscuits I fed you at tea,
Recall if you will, the moon in your shell,
And from up in your heaven, remember me well."

Fondly,

Capt. W. Pigg ("Snoogles")
Newport, R.I.
1874