104 WHALING 



moment with the slightest observation, even upon so neutral a 

 topic as the weather. No! And when reaching out his knife 

 and fork, between which the slice of beef was locked, Ahab 

 thereby motioned Starbuck's plate toward him, the mate re- 

 ceived his meat as though receiving alms; and cut it tenderly; 

 and a little startled if, perchance, the knife grazed against the 

 plate; and chpwed it noiselessly; and swallowed it, not without 

 circumspection. For, like the Coronation banquet at Frank- 

 fort, where the German Emperor profoundly dines with the 

 seven Imperial Electors, so these cabin meals were somehow 

 solemn meals, eaten in awful silence; and yet at table old Ahab 

 forbade not conversation; only he himself was dumb. What a 

 relief it was to choking Stubb, when a rat made a sudden racket 

 in the hold below. And poor little Flask, he was the youngest 

 son, and little boy of this weary family party. His were the 

 shin-bones of the saline beef; his would have been the drum- 

 sticks. For Flask to have presumed to help himself, this must 

 have seemed to him tantamount to larceny in the first degree. 

 Had he helped himself at the table, doubtless, never more 

 would he have been able to hold his head up in this honest 

 world; nevertheless, strange to say, Ahab never forbade him. 

 And had Flask helped himself, the chances were Ahab had never 

 so much as noticed it. Least of all, did Flask presume to help 

 himself to butter. Whether he thought the owners of the ship 

 denied it to him, on account of its clotting his clear, sunny com- 

 plexion ; or whether he deemed that, on so long a voyage in such 

 marketless waters, butter was at a premium, and therefore was 

 not for him, a subaltern; however it was. Flask, alas! was a 

 butterless man! 



"Another thing. Flask was the last person down at the din- 

 ner, and Flask is the first man up. Consider! For hereby 

 Flask's dinner was badly jammed in point of time. Starbuck 

 and Stubb both had the start of him; and yet they also have the 

 privilege of lounging in the rear. If Stubb even, who is but a 

 peg higher than Flask, happens to have but a small appetite, 

 and soon shows symptoms of concluding his repast, then Flask 

 must bestir himself, he will not get more than three mouthfuls 



