" WHALES HAS FEELIN's." 175 



ocean swell. She was the joyfullest ship on all 

 the seas. We were going back to her 



" Oh, ain't I all-fired glad we got done with that 

 wild-eyed monster?" The speaker was dripping 

 with brine. " I calc'lated I was clean daown- 

 swallered like old Jonah — all-fired sure I were ! " 



" Maybe I ain't glad, too ! oh, maybe not ! I 

 could look way down in the dratted brute's dratted 

 big gizzards. Deep ? Maybe not. Oh, no. Felt 

 like I was dangled over the drattedest deep pit in 

 the whole dratted world." 



" 1 wouldn't touch that there man-eater with 

 the far-end of a spare yard — not for money;" 

 said a third, squeezing the salt-water out of his 

 beard, " no, not for money. I tell you, mess- 

 mates, it's homicide an' man-slaughter, an' bloody 

 murder with malice aforethought to take an' 

 dump two boats' crews down the gullet o' that 

 pesky man-eater, / tell you ! " 



But think not, gentle reader, that these words 

 were spoken in anything graver than jest. 



That this whale was a tough one, I have no 

 inclination to deny — not the slightest. I followed 

 the sea forty-one years, I was captain of a ship 

 twenty-eight years, I have sailed more than a 

 million miles, and I have had a hand in the taking 

 of about twelve thousand barrels of oil ; but this 



