e beholding instant, Tashtego's mast-head hammer
remained suspended in his hand; and the red flag, half-wrapping him as
with a plaid, then streamed itself straight out from him, as his own
forward-flowing heart; while Starbuck and Stubb, standing upon the
bowsprit beneath, caught sight of the down-coming monster just as soon
as he.

"The whale, the whale! Up helm, up helm! Oh, all ye sweet powers of air,
now hug me close! Let not Starbuck die, if die he must, in a woman's
fainting fit. Up helm, I say--ye fools, the jaw! the jaw! Is this the
end of all my bursting prayers? all my life-long fidelities? Oh, Ahab,
Ahab, lo, thy work. Steady! helmsman, steady. Nay, nay! Up helm again!
He turns to meet us! Oh, his unappeasable brow drives on towards one,
whose duty tells him he cannot depart. My God, stand by me now!"

"Stand not by me, but stand under me, whoever you are that will now help
Stubb; for Stubb, too, sticks here. I grin at thee, thou grinning whale!
Who ever helped Stubb, or kept Stubb awake, but Stubb's own unwinking
eye? And now poor Stubb goes to bed upon a mattrass that is all too
soft; would it were stuffed with brushwood! I grin at thee, thou
grinning whale! Look ye, sun, moon, and stars! I call ye assassins of
as good a fellow as ever spouted up his ghost. For all that, I would yet
ring glasses with ye, would ye but hand the cup! Oh, oh! oh, oh! thou
grinning whale, but there'll be plenty of gulping soon! Why fly ye
not, O Ahab! For me, off shoes and jacket to it; let Stubb die in
his drawers! A most mouldy and over salted death, though;--cherries!
cherries! cherries! Oh, Flask, for one red cherry ere we die!"

"Cherries? I only wish that we were where they grow. Oh, Stubb, I hope
my poor mother's drawn my part-pay ere this; if not, few coppers will
now come to her, for the voyage is up."

From the ship's bows, nearly all the seamen now hung inactive; hammers,
bits of plank, lances, and harpoons, mechanically retained in their
hands, just as they had darted from their various employments; all their
enchanted eyes intent upon the whale, which from side to side strangely
vibrating his predestinating head, sent a broad band of overspreading
semicircular foam before him as he rushed. Retribution, swift vengeance,
eternal malice were in his whole aspect, and spite of all that mortal
man could do, the solid white buttress of his forehead smote the ship's
starboard bow, till men and timbers reeled. Some fell f