482 
MOBY DICK; OR 
I never would work for lonely widow old women ashore, when I kept 
my job-shop in the Vineyard ; they might have taken it into their lonely 
old heads to run off with me. But heigh-ho ! there are no caps at sea 
but snow-caps. Let me see. Nail down the lid; caulk the seams; pay 
over the same with pitch; batten them down tight, and hang it with 
the snap-spring over the ship’s stern. Were ever such things done 
before with a coffin ? Some superstitious old carpenters, now, would he 
tied up in the rigging, ere they would do the job. But I’m made of 
knotty Aroostook hemlock; I don’t budge. Cruppered with a coffin! 
Sailing about with a grave-yard tray ! But never mind. We workers 
in woods made bridal-bedsteads and card-tables, as well as coffins and 
hearses. We work by the month, or by the job, or by the profit; 
not for us to ask the why and wherefore of our work, unless it he too 
coufounded cobbling, and then we stash it if we can. Hem! I’ll do 
the job, now, tenderly. I’ll have me — let’s see — how many in the 
ship’s company, all told? But I’ve forgotten. Anyway, I’ll have 
me thirty separate, Turk’s-headed life-lines, each three feet long hang- 
ing all round to the coffin. Then, if the hull go down, there’ll be 
thirty lively fellows all fighting for one coffin, a sight not seen very 
often beneath the sun! Come hammer, caulking-iron, pitch-pot and 
marling-spike ! Let’s to it.” 
CHAPTER CXXVI 
THE DECK 
{The coffin laid upon two line-tubs, between the bench-vice and the open 
hatchway ; the Carpenter caulking its seams ; the string of twisted oakum 
slowly unwinding from a large roll of it placed in the bosom of his 
frock — Ahab comes slowly from the cabin-gangway , and hears Pip 
following him.) 
“Back, lad; I will be with ye again presently. He goes! Not this 
hand complies with my humour more genially than that boy. — Middle 
aisle of a church ! What’s here ?” 
“Lifebuoy, sir. Mr. Starbuck’s orders. Oh, look, sir! Beware 
the hatchway!” 
