A Ship and a Man

  SEEING a ship sailing by upon the sea of politics, an Ambitious
Person started in hot pursuit along the strand¹; but the people's
eyes being fixed² upon the Presidency³ no one observed the pursuer. 
This greatly annoyed him, and recollecting⁴ that he was not aquatic⁵,
he stopped and shouted across the waves' tumultous roar:

  "Take my name off the passenger list."

  Back to him over the waters, hollow and heartless, like laughter in
a tomb, rang the voice of the Skipper:

  "'T ain't on!"

  And there, in the focus of a million pairs of convergent⁶ eyes, the
Ambitious Person sat him down between the sun and moon and murmured
sadly to his own soul:

  "Marooned⁷, by thunder!"