Oh! a great watcher, and very dietetically severe,
is Dr. Bunger. (Bunger, you dog, laugh out! why don't ye?
You know you're a precious jolly rascal.) But, heave ahead, boy,
I'd rather be killed by you than kept alive by any other man."
"My captain, you must have ere this perceived, respected sir"--
said the imperturbable godly-looking Bunger, slightly bowing
to Ahab--"is apt to be facetious at times; he spins us many
clever things of that sort. But I may as well say--en passant,
as the French remark--that I myself--that is to say, Jack Bunger,
late of the reverend clergy--am a strict total abstinence man;
I never drink-"
"Water!" cried the captain; "he never drinks it; it's a sort
of fits to him; fresh water throws him into the hydrophobia;
but go on--go on with the arm story."
"Yes, I may as well," said the surgeon, coolly. "I was about
observing, sir, before Captain Boomer's facetious interruption,
that spite of my best and severest endeavors, the wound kept getting
worse and worse; the truth was, sir, it was as ugly gaping wound
as surgeon ever saw; more than two feet and several inches long.
I measured it with the lead line. In short, it grew black;
I knew what was threatened, and off it came.
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