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I was all eagerness to see his face, but he kept it averted fr some time while employed in unlacing the bag's mouth.

Holding a light in one hand, and that identical New Zealand head in the other, the stranger entered the room and without looking towards the bed, placed his candle a good way off from me on the floor in one corner, and then began working away at the knotted cords of the large bag I before spoke...

But I lay perfectly still, and resolved not to say a word till spoken to.

Lord save me, thinks I, that must be the harpooner, the infernal head-pedlar.

At last I slid off into a light doze, and had pretty nearly made a good offing towards the land of Nod, when I heard a heavy footfall in the passage, and saw a glimmer of light come into the room from under the door.

Whether that mattress was stuffed with corn-cobs or broken crockery, there is no telling, but I rolled about a good deal, and could not sleep for a long time.

But beginning to feel very cold now, half undressed as I was, and remembering what the landlord said about the harpooner's not coming home at all that night, it being so very late, I made no more ado, but jumped out of my pantaloons and boots, and then blowing out the light tumbled into bed, and...

I then took off my coat, and thought a little more in my shirt-sleeves.

After thinking some time on the bed-side, I got up and took off my monkey-jacket, and then stood in the middle of the room thinking.

I sat down on the side of the bed, and commenced thinking about this head-peddling harpooner, and his door mat.

I tore myself out of it in such a hurry that I gave myself a kink in the neck.

I went up in it to a bit of glass stuck against the wall, and I never saw such a sight in my life.

I put it on, to try it, and it weighed me down like a hamper, being uncommonly shaggy and tick, and I thought a little damp, as though this mysterious harpooner had been wearing it of a rainy day. Again - really glad y'all are enjoying this!

But could it be possible that any sober harpooner would get into a door mat, and parade the streets of any Christian town in that sort of guise?

There was a hole or slit in the middle of this mat, as you see the same in South American ponchos.

I can compare it to nothing but a large door mat, ornamented at the edges with little tinkling rags something like the stained porcupine quills round an Indian moccasin.

I took it up, and held it close to the lamplight, and felt it, and smelt it, and tried every way possible to arrive at some satisfactory conclusion concerning it.

But what is this on the chest? I'm really glad people are enjoying this! I've gotten quite a few people, even a mod, reading along, lol. This is a really fun experience for me and I'm glad others like it as well!

Likewise, there was a parcel of outlandish bone fish hooks on the shelf over the fireplace, and a tall harpoon standing at the head of the bed.

Of things not properly belonging to the room, there was a hammock lashed up, and thrown upon the floor in one corner; also a large seaman's bag containing the harpooner's wardrobe, no doubt in lieu of a land trunk.