CHAPTER 129

  The Cabin

  (Ahab moving to go on deck; Pip catches him hy the hand to follow.)

  Lad, lad, I tell thee thou must not follow Ahab now. The hour is

coming when Ahab would not scare thee from him, yet would not have

thee by him. There is that in thee, poor lad, which I feel too

curing to my malady. Like cures like; and for this hunt, my malady

becomes my most desired health. Do thou abide below here, where they

shall serve thee, as if thou wert the captain. Aye, lad, thou shalt

sit here in my own screwed chair; another screw to it, thou must be."

  "No, no, no! ye have not a whole body, sir; do ye but use poor me

for your one lost leg; only tread upon me, sir; I ask no more, so I

remain a part of ye."

  "Oh! spite of million villains, this makes me a bigot in the

fadeless fidelity of man!- and a black! and crazy!- but methinks

like-cures-like applies to him too; he grows so sane again."

  "They tell me, sir, that Stubb did once desert poor little Pip,

whose drowned bones now show white, for all the blackness of his

living skin. But I will never desert ye, sir, as Stubb did him. Sir, I

must go with ye."

  "If thou speakest thus to me much more, Ahab's purpose keels up in

him. I tell thee no; it cannot be."

  "Oh good master, master, master!

  "Weep so, and I will murder thee! have a care, for Ahab too is

mad. Listen, and thou wilt often hear my ivory foot upon the deck, and

still know that I am there. And now I quit thee. Thy hand!- Met!

True art thou, lad, as the circumference to its centre. So: God for

ever bless thee; and if it come to that,- God for ever save thee,

let what will befall."

  (Ahab goes; Pip steps one step forward.)

  "Here he this instant stood, I stand in his air,- but I'm alone. Now

were even poor Pip here I could endure it, but he's missing. Pip! Pip!

Ding, dong, ding! Who's seen Pip? He must be up here; let's try the

door. What? neither lock, nor bolt, nor bar; and yet there's no

opening it. It must be the spell; he told me to stay here: Aye, and

told me this screwed chair was mine. Here, then, I'll seat me, against

the transom, in the ship's full middle, all her keel and her three

masts before me. Here, our old sailors say, in their black

seventy-fours great admirals sometimes sit at table, and lord it

over rows of captains and lieutenants. Ha! what's this? epaulets!

epaulets! the epaulets all come crowding. Pass round the decanters;

glad to see ye; fill up, monsieurs! What an odd feeling, now, when a

black boy's host to white men with gold lace upon their coats!-

Monsieurs, have ye seen one Pip?- a little negro lad, five feet

high, hang-dog look, and cowardly! Jumped from a whale-boat once;-

seen him? No! Well then, fill up again, captains, and let's drink

shame upon all cowards! I name no names. Shame upon them! Put one foot

upon the table. Shame upon all cowards.- Hist! above there, I hear

ivory- Oh, master! master! I am indeed down-hearted when you walk over

me. But there I'll stay, though this stern strikes rocks; and they

bulge through; and oysters come to join me."