487 
THE WHITE WHALE 
when placed between jeopardised but divided boats, always to pick up 
the majority first. But the Captain, for some unknown constitutional 
reason, had refrained from mentioning all this, and not till forced to it 
by Ahab’s iciness did he allude to his one yet missing boy ; a little lad, 
but twelve years old, whose father with the earnest but unmisgiving 
hardihood of a Nantucketer’s paternal love, had thus early sought to 
initiate him in the perils and wonders of a vocation almost immemori- 
ally the destiny of all his race. Nor does it unfrequently occur, that 
Nantucket captains will send a son of such tender age away from them 
for a protracted three or four years’ voyage in some other ship than 
their own : so that their first knowledge of a whaleman’s career shall be 
unenervated by any chance display of a father’s natural but untimely 
partiality, or undue apprehensiveness and concern. 
Meantime, now the stranger was still beseeching his poor boon of 
Ahab; and Ahab still stood like an anvil receiving every shock, but 
without the least quivering of his own. 
“I will not go,” said the stranger, “till you say aye to me. Do to 
me as you would have me do to you in the like case. For you too have 
a boy, Captain Ahab — though but a child, and nestling safely at home 
now — a child of your old age too. — Yes, yes, you relent; I see it — 
run, run, men, now, and stand by to square in the yards.” 
“Avast,” cried Ahab — “touch not a rope-yarn” ; then in a voice that 
prolongingly moulded every word — “Captain Gardiner, I will not do it. 
Even now I lose time. Good-bye, good-bye. God bless ye, man, and 
may I forgive myself, but I must go. Mr. Starbuck, look at the bin- 
nacle watch, and in three minutes from this present instant warn off all 
strangers: then brace forward again, and let the ship sail as before.” 
Hurriedly turning with averted face, he descended into his cabin, 
leaving the strange captain transfixed at this unconditional and utter 
rejection of his so earnest suit. But starting from his enchantment, 
Gardiner silently hurried to the side ; more fell than stepped into his 
boat, and returned to his ship. 
Soon the two ships diverged their wakes; and long as the strange 
vessel was in view, she was seen to yaw hither and thither at every dark 
spot, however small, on the sea. This way and that her yards were 
swung round; starboard and larboard, she continued to tack; now 
