I'll soon take that black from your brow.
Come along, will ye (merry's the play); a full ship and homeward-bound."
"How wondrous familiar is a fool!" muttered Ahab; then aloud, "Thou art
a full ship and homeward bound, thou sayest; well, then, call me
an empty ship, and outward-bound. So go thy ways, and I will mine.
Forward there! Set all sail, and keep her to the wind!"
And thus, while the one ship went cheerily before the breeze,
the other stubbornly fought against it; and so the two vessels parted;
the crew of the Pequod looking with grave, lingering glances
towards the receding Bachelor; but the Bachelor's men never heeding
their gaze for the lively revelry they were in. And as Ahab,
leaning over the taffrail, eyed the homewardbound craft, he took
from his pocket a small vial of sand, and then looking from the ship
to the vial, seemed thereby bringing two remote associations together,
for that vial was filled with Nantucket soundings.
CHAPTER 116
The Dying Whale
Not seldom in this life, when, on the right side, fortune's favorites
sail close by us, we, though all adroop before, catch somewhat
of the rushing breeze, and joyfully feel our bagging sails fill out.
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