48 
MOBY DICK; OR 
my fellowman to do to me — that is the will of God. Now, Queequeg 
is my fellowman. And what do I wish that this Queequeg would do 
to me? Why, unite with me in my particular Presbyterian form of 
worship. Consequently, I must then unite with him in his; ergo, I 
must turn idolater. So I kindled the shavings; helped prop up the 
innocent little idol ; offered him burnt biscuit with Queequeg ; salaamed 
before him twice or thrice ; kissed his nose ; and that done, we undressed 
and went to bed, at peace with our own consciences and all the world. 
But we did not go to sleep without some little chat. 
How it is I know not ; but there is no place like a bed for confidential 
disclosures between friends. Man and wife, they say, there open the 
very bottom of their souls to each other ; and some old couples often lie 
and chat over old times till nearly morning. Thus, then, lay I and 
Queequeg — a cosy, loving pair. 
CHAPTER XI 
NIGHTGOWN 
We had lain thus in bed, chatting and napping at short intervals, 
when, at last, by reason of our confabulations what little nappishness 
remained in us altogether departed, and we felt like getting up again, 
though daybreak was yet some way down the future. 
Yes, we became very wakeful; so much so that our recumbent posi- 
tion began to grow wearisome, and by little and little we found our- 
selves sitting up; the clothes well tucked around us, leaning against 
the headboard with our four knees drawn up close together, and our 
two noses bending over them, as if our kneepans were warming-pans. 
We felt very nice and snug, the more so since it was so chilly out of 
doors; indeed out of bed-clothes too, seeing that there was no fire in 
the room. The more so, I say, because truly to enjoy bodily warmth, 
some small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality in this 
world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in 
itself. If you flatter yourself that you are all over comfortable, and 
have been so a long time, then you cannot be said to be comfortable 
any more. But if, like Queequeg and me in the bed, the tip of your 
nose or the crown of your head be slightly chilled, why then, indeed, 
in general consciousness you feel most delightfully and unmistakably 
