Prelude

Hush! if you remember how we sailed to old Japan,Peterkin was with us then, our little brother Peterkin!Now we've lost him, so they say: I think the tall thin manMust have come and touched him with his curious twinkling fanAnd taken him away again, our merry little Peterkin;He'll be frightened all alone; we'll find him if we can;Come and look for Peterkin, poor little Peterkin.

No one would believe us if we told them what we know,Or they wouldn't grieve for Peterkin, merry little Peterkin!If they'd only watched us roaming through the streets of Miyako,And travelling in a palanquin where parents never go,And seen the golden gardens where we wandered once with Peterkin,And smelt the purple orchards where the cherry-blossoms blow,They wouldn't mourn for Peterkin, merry little Peterkin.

Put away your muskets, lay aside the drum,Hang it by the wooden sword we made for little Peterkin!He was once our trumpeter, now his bugle's dumb,Pile your arms beneath it, for the owlet light is come,We'll wander through the roses where we marched of old with Peterkin,We'll search the summer sunset where the Hybla beehives hum,And--if we meet a fairy there--we'll ask for news of Peterkin.

He was once our cabin-boy and cooked the sweets for tea;And O, we've sailed around the world with laughing little Peterkin;From nursery floor to pantry door we've roamed the mighty sea,And come to port below the stairs in distant Caribee,But wheresoe'er we sailed we took our little lubber Peterkin,Because his wide grey eyes believed much more than ours could see,And so we liked our Peterkin, our trusty little Peterkin.

Peterkin, Peterkin, I think if you came backThe captain of our host to-day should be the bugler Peterkin,And he should lead our smugglers up that steep and narrow track,A band of noble brigands, bearing each a mighty packCrammed with lace and jewels to the secret cave of Peterkin,And he should wear the biggest boots and make his pistol crack,--The Spanish cloak, the velvet mask, we'd give them all to Peterkin.

Come, my brother pirates, I am tired of play;Come and look for Peterkin, little brother Peterkin,Our merry little comrade that the fairies took away,For people think we've lost him, and when we come to sayOur good-night prayers to mother, if we pray for little PeterkinHer eyes are very sorrowful, she turns her head away.Come and look for Peterkin, merry little Peterkin.

God bless little Peterkin, wherever he may be!Come and look for Peterkin, lonely little Peterkin:I wonder if they've taken him again across the seaFrom the town of Wonder-Wander and the Amfalula treeTo the land of many marvels where we roamed of old with Peterkin,The land of blue pagodas and the flowery fields of tea!Come and look for Peterkin, poor little Peterkin.