ives of all her crew. We could, therefore,
only hope that the whale might be conquered when still within sight, so
that the boats might carry off the prize from the relentless killer.
Away went the monster and his tormentor. Soon we could no longer
distinguish them from the deck; but on going aloft, we again caught
sight of them, still floundering on as before.

"That fish gives us a lesson of what pertinacity will accomplish, even
in conquering the greatest of difficulties," observed Newman, laughing.
"I admire the way in which he sticks to his object. He has made up his
mind to kill the whale, and kill the whale he will."

"Ay, and eat him too, Ned, as he deserves," said old Knowles. "Some of
us might learn a lesson from that fish, I'm thinking."

"I have been killing whales all my life," Newman remarked to me with a
forced laugh. "But somehow or other, Jack, I never have found out how
to eat them."

"Overcoming difficulties, but not benefiting by them!" said I. "There
must be a fault somewhere."

"Ay, Jack, ay--a fault in myself, and a curse well-deserved," he
answered, bitterly, and then was silent. I never before had heard him
speak in that way, and I did not venture to ask for an explanation.

That saying of Newman became common ever afterwards on board, when we
saw a man determined to do a thing--"Kill the whale he will!"

I have often thought since, how seldom sailors, especially, learn to eat
whales. What sums of money they make and throw carelessly away!--amply
sufficient to enable them to pass the end of their days in comfort on
shore, or to provide respectably for their families, instead, as is
often the case with the merchant-seaman, ending their days in a
poor-house, or leaving their families to the cold charity of the world.
Brother seamen, learn wisdom! Prepare for the future of this life; and,
more than all, prepare for the life to come.

Two of the whales chased were captured and brought alongside, when we
set to work to cut-in and try-out with all the rapidity we could exert.
In those high southern latitudes the weather is very variable, and we
knew that a change might come and deprive us of our prey. We were,
however, fortunate in securing both whales, and between them they gave
us one hundred and sixty barrels of fine oil. Before, however, the
boats had returned with their prizes, the whale and the killer had got
far out of sight even from the mast-head. We continued for some tim