Captain Peleg seldom or never went ashore,
but sat in his wigwam keeping a sharp look-out upon the hands:
Bildad did all the purchasing and providing at the stores;
and the men employed in the hold and on the rigging were working
till long after night-fall.
On the day following Queequeg's signing the articles,
word was given at all the inns where the ship's company
were stopping, that their chests must be on board before night,
for there was no telling how soon the vessel might be sailing.
So Queequeg and I got down our traps, resolving, however, to sleep
ashore till the last. But it seems they always give very long
notice in these cases, and the ship did not sail for several days.
But no wonder; there was a good deal to be done, and there is
no telling how many things to be thought of, before the Pequod
was fully equipped.
Every one knows what a multitude of things--beds, sauce-pans, knives
and forks, shovels and tongs, napkins, nut-crackers, and what not,
are indispensable to the business of housekeeping. Just so with whaling,
which necessitates a three-years' housekeeping upon the wide ocean,
far from all grocers, costermongers, doctors, bakers, and bankers.
And though this also holds true of merchant vessels, yet not by any means
to the same extent as with whalemen.
Pages:
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173