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Melville, Herman, 1819-1891

"Moby Dick: or, the White Whale"

Ha, Pip? come to help; eh, Pip?"
"Pip? whom call ye Pip? Pip jumped from the whaleboat.
Pip's missing. Let's see now if ye haven't fished him
up here, fisherman. It drags hard; I guess he's holding on.
Jerk him, Tahiti! Jerk him off we haul in no cowards here.
Ho! there's his arm just breaking water. A hatchet! a hatchet!
cut it off--we haul in no cowards here. Captain Ahab! sir,
sir! here's Pip, trying to get on board again."
"Peace, thou crazy loon," cried the Manxman, seizing him by the arm.
"Away from the quarter-deck!"
"The greater idiot ever scolds the lesser," muttered Ahab, advancing.
"Hands off from that holiness! Where sayest thou Pip was, boy?
"Astern there, sir, astern! Lo! lo!"
"And who art thou, boy? I see not my reflection in the vacant pupils
of thy eyes. Oh God! that man should be a thing for immortal souls
to sieve through! Who art thou, boy?"
"Bell-boy, sir; ship's-crier; ding, dong, ding! Pip! Pip! Pip! One
hundred pounds of clay reward for Pip; five feet high--looks cowardly--
quickest known by that! Ding, dong, ding! Who's seen Pip the coward?"
"There can be no hearts above the snow-line. Oh, ye frozen
heavens! look down here. Ye did beget this luckless child,
and have abandoned him, ye creative libertines.


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