He would stand still for hours:
but never sat or leaned; his wan but wondrous eyes did plainly say--
We two watchmen never rest.
Nor, at any time, by night or day could the mariners
now step upon the deck, unless Ahab was before them;
either standing in his pivot-hole, or exactly pacing the planks
between two undeviating limits,--the main-mast and the mizen;
or else they saw him standing in the cabin-scuttle,--his living
foot advanced upon the deck, as if to step; his hat slouched
heavily over his eyes; so that however motionless he stood,
however the days and nights were added on, that he had not
swung in his hammock; yet hidden beneath that slouching hat,
they could never tell unerringly whether, for all this, his eyes
were really closed at times; or whether he was still intently
scanning them; no matter, though he stood so in the scuttle
for a whole hour on the stretch, and the unheeded night-damp
gathered in beads of dew upon that stone-carved coat and hat.
The clothes that the night had wet, the next day's sunshine
dried upon him; and so, day after day, and night after night;
he went no more beneath the planks; whatever he wanted from
the cabin that thing he sent for.
He ate in the same open air; that is, his two only meals,--
breakfast and dinner: supper he never touched; nor reaped
his beard; which darkly grew all gnarled, as unearthed roots
of trees blown over, which still grow idly on at naked base,
though perished in the upper verdure.
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