Moby Dick

[Old Thunder]

"I do, sir."

 

[Old Thunder]

"Very good. Now, art thou the man to pitch a harpoon down a live whale's throat, and then jump after it? Answer, quick!"

 

[Old Thunder]

"I am, sir, if it should be positively indispensable to do so; not to be got rid of, that is; which I don't take to be the fact."

 

[Old Thunder]

"Good again. Now then, thou not only wantest to go a-whaling, to find out by experience what whaling is, but ye also want to go in order to see the world? Was not that what ye said? I thought so. Well then, just step forward there, and take a peep over the weather-bow, and then back to me and tell me what ye see there."

 

[Old Thunder]

For a moment I stood a little puzzled by this curious request, not knowing exactly how to take it, whether humorously or in earnest.

 

[Old Thunder]

But concentrating all his crow's feet into one scowl, Captain Peleg started me on the errand.

 

[Old Thunder]

Going forward and glancing over the weather bow, I perceived that the ship swinging to her anchor with the flood-tide, was now obliquely pointing towards the open ocean.

 

[Old Thunder]

The prospect was unlimited, but exceedingly monotonous and forbidding; not the slightest variety that I could see.

 

[Old Thunder]

"Well, what's the report?" said Peleg when I came back; "what did ye see?"

 

[Old Thunder]

"Not much," I replied--"nothing but water; considerable horizon though, and there's a squall coming up, I think."