s what all! I
didn't understand a word on 't, and, besides that, I was afeard on him.

"'Tell 'em about the last whale we ketched, Jack,--that big bull that so
nigh upsot us all. Come, that's a story worth while!' It was the man
that had led him in who said this; and he laughed loud, and slapped him
on the shoulder as he said it; and then he looked at my mother and
winked, and drawed his mouth queer agin.

"My father kind o' come to himself like now, and seatin' himself astride
a chair, and with his face to the back on 't, he began:--

"We was a cruisin' about in the South Pacific, when, between three and
four in the afternoon of an August day, we bein' in latitude forty at
the time, the man on the look-out at the fore-topmast-head cried out
that a whale had broke water in plain view of our ship, and on her
weather bow.

"'Where away, sir? and what do you call her?' shouts the captain,
hailin' the mast-head.

"'Sperm whale, sir, three pints on the weather-bow, and about two miles
off!'

"'Keep a sharp eye, and sing out when the ship heads for her!'

"'Ay, ay, sir.'

"The captain went aloft with his spy-glass. 'Keep her away!' was his
next order to the man at the helm.

"'Steady!' sung out the mast-head.

"'Steady it is!' answered the wheel.

"'Square in the after-yards, and call all hands!'

"'Ay, ay, sir.'

"'Forward there! Haul the mainsail up, and square the yards!'

"'Steady, steady!' sings out the mast-head.

"'Steady it is!' answers the wheel.

"'Call all hands!' shouts the captain, in a voice like a tempest.

"The main hatches was off, and the men mostly in the blubber-room,
engaged, some on 'em, in mincin' and pikin' pieces of blanket and horse
from one tub to another, and some was a-tendin' fires, and some
a-fillin' casks with hot ile from the cooler; but quick as lightnin' all
the deck is thronged, like the street of a city when there is a cry of
fire.

"'There she blows! O, she's a beauty, a regular old sog!' sings the
mast-head.

"'Slack down the fires! Quick, by G--!' shouts the captain in a voice
like thunder.

"'She peaks her flukes, and goes down!' cries the mast-head.

"'A sharp eye, sir! Mind where she comes up!'

"'Ay, ay, sir!'

"'Get your boats ready, lads, and stand by to lower away!'

"The men work as for life,--the boat-bottoms are tallered, the
boat-tackle-falls laid down, so as to run clear, the tub o' line and
the harpoons got in, the gripes cast clear, and eac