Here, boy;
Ahab's cabin shall be Pip's home henceforth, while Ahab lives.
Thou touchest my inmost centre, boy; thou art tied to me by cords
woven of my heart-strings. Come, let's down."
"What's this? here's velvet shark-skin," intently gazing at Ahab's hand,
and feeling it. "Ah, now, had poor Pip but felt so kind a thing as this,
perhaps he had ne'er been lost! This seems to me, sir, as a man-rope;
something that weak souls may hold by. Oh, sir, let old Perth now come
and rivet these two hands together; the black one with the white,
for I will not let this go."
"Oh, boy, nor will I thee, unless I should thereby drag thee
to worse horrors than are here. Come, then, to my cabin.
Lo! ye believers in gods all goodness, and in man all ill,
lo you! see the omniscient gods oblivious of suffering man;
and man, though idiotic, and knowing not what he does, yet full
of the sweet things of love and gratitude. Come! I feel prouder
leading thee by thy black hand, than though I grasped an Emperor's!"
"There go two daft ones now," muttered the old Manxman.
"One daft with strength, the other daft with weakness.
But here's the end of the rotten line--all dripping, too.
Mend it, eh? I think we had best have a new line altogether.
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