Moby Dick

[Old Thunder]

He answered no, not yet; and added that he was fearful Christianity, or rather Christians, had unfitted him for ascending the pure and undefiled throne of thirty pagan Kings before him.

 

[Old Thunder]

But by and by, he said, he would return, - as soon as he felt himself baptised again.

 

[Old Thunder]

For the nonce, however, he proposed to sail about, and sow his wild oats in all four oceans.

 

[Old Thunder]

They had made a harpooner of him, and that barbed iron was in lieu of a sceptre now.

 

[Old Thunder]

I asked him what might be his immediate purpose, touching his future movements.

 

[Old Thunder]

He answered, to go to sea again, in his old vocation.

 

[Old Thunder]

Upon this, I told him that whaling was my own design, and informed him of my intention to sail out of Nantucket,* as being the most promising port for an adventurous whaleman to embark from.

*Island south of Cape Cod, a great whaling port; at the time it had a significant population.

 

[Old Thunder]

He at once resolved to accompany me to that island, ship aboard the same vessel, get into the same watch, the same boat, the same mess with me, in short to share my every hap; with both my hands in his, boldly dip into the Potluck of both worlds.

 

[Old Thunder]

To all this I joyously assented; for besides the affection I now felt for Queequeg, he was an experienced harpooner, and as such, could not fail to be of great usefulness to one, who, like me, was wholly ignorant of the mysteries of whaling, though well acquainted with the sea, as known to merchant seamen.

 

[Old Thunder]

His story being ended with his pipe's last dying puff, Queequeg embraced me, pressed his forehead against mine, and blowing out the light, we rolled over from each other, this way and that, and very soon were sleeping.