I Saw A Ship A-Sailing —

I saw a ship a-sailing,

A-sailing on the sea;

And, oh! it was all laden

With pretty things for thee!

There were comfits in the cabin,

And apples in the hold;

The sails were made of silk,

And the masts were made of gold.

—- Mother Goose Nursery Rhyme

What do little children read today? Or have read to them?

I grew up on Mother Goose. I knew scores of nursery rhymes by heart. I was a “bad eater” — that’s what it was called, or sometimes, a “picky eater” — and the easiest way to slip food past my lips was to read to me. I would sit and listen open-mouthed, agape at other worlds, other realities.

That was three-quarters of a century ago, and I still remember every rhyme. So it’s no wonder that, when I noticed the ship in the niche in our local Chinese restaurant, familiar words came unbidden from the distant past:

The silken sails, the golden masts —

But I’d forgot the rest of the rhyme, which is too bad, because it’s exactly what a modern child, ignorant of ancient confections, unimpressed by apples, would find most delightful aboard that ship a-sailing:

The four-and-twenty sailors

That stood between the decks,

Were four-and-twenty white mice

With chains about their necks.

The captain was a duck,

With a packet on his back;

And when the ship began to move,

The captain said, “Quack! Quack!”

You can’t see them? They’re right there, right in your mind’s-eye, which is where all magic begins, anyway. What magic do you remember?