468 
MOBY DICK; OR 
but you will never pound into me what you were just now saying. And 
bow long ago is it since you said the very contrary ? Didn’t you once 
say that whatever ship Ahab sails in, that ship should pay something 
extra on its insurance policy, just as though it were loaded with powder- 
barrels aft and boxes of lucifers forward? Stop now, didn’t you say 
so ?” 
“Well, suppose I did? What then? I’ve part changed my flesh 
since that time, why not my mind ? Besides, supposing we are loaded 
with powder-barrels aft and lucifers forward, how the devil could the 
lucifers get afire in this drenching spray here? Why, my little man, 
you have pretty red hair, but you couldn’t get afire now. Shake your- 
self! you’re Aquarius, or the water-bearer, Flask; might fill pitchers 
at your coat collar. Don’t you see, then, that for these extra risks the 
Marine Insurance companies have extra guarantees? Here are hy- 
drants, Flask. But hark, again, and I’ll answer ye the other thing. 
First take your leg off from the crown of the anchor here, though, so 
I can pass the rope; now, listen. What’s the mighty difference be- 
tween holding a mast’s lightning-rod in the storm, and standing close 
by a mast that hasn’t got any lightning-rod at all in a storm? Don’t 
you see, you timberhead, that no harm can come to the holder of the 
rod, unless the mast is first struck? What are you talking about, 
then ? Hot one ship in a hundred carries rods, and Ahab, — aye, man, 
and all of us, — were in no more danger then, in my poor opinion, than 
all the crews in ten thousand ships now sailing the seas. Why, you 
King-Post, you, I suppose you would have every man in the world go 
about with a small lightning-rod running up the corner of his hat, like 
a militia officer’s skewered feather, and trailing behind like his sash. 
Why don’t ye be sensible, Flask? it’s easy to be sensible; why don’t 
ye, then ? any man with half an eye can be sensible.” 
“I don’t know that, Stubb. You will sometimes find it rather hard.” 
“Yes, when a fellow’s soaked through, it’s hard to be sensible, that’s 
a fact. And I am about drenched with this spray. Never mind; 
catch the turn there, and pass it. Seems to me we are lashing down 
these anchors now as if they were never going to be used again. Ty- 
ing these two anchors here, Flask, seems like tying a man’s hands 
behind him. And what big generous hands they are, to be sure. These 
