Ahab's Adventure's In Wonderland; or The Rabbit

Chapter Thirteen

At length, towards noon, the two landlords, Peleg and Bildad, issued from the cabin, and turning to the foreman, Peleg said:

'Now, Mr. Starbuck, are you sure everything is right? Captain Ahab is all ready--just spoke to him--nothing more to be got from town, eh? Well, call all hands, then. Muster 'em here--blast 'em!'

'No need of profane words, however great the hurry, Peleg,' said Bildad, 'but away with thee, friend Starbuck, and do our bidding.'

How now! Here upon the very point of starting the season, Peleg and Bildad were going it with a high hand in the front-yard, just as if they were to be joint-commanders. And, as for Captain Ahab, no sign of him was yet to be seen; Only, they said he was in the cabin. But then, the idea was, that his presence was by no means necessary in getting the season started, and tilling the first line. Indeed, as that was not at all his proper business, but the plowman's; and as he was not yet completely recovered--so they said--therefore, Captain Ahab stayed inside. And all this seemed natural enough; especially as in my experience many landlords never show themselves in the fields for a considerable time after the tilling has started, but remain inside a bar or tavern, merry-making with their friends.

But there was not much chance to think over the matter, for Peleg was now all alive. He seemed to do most of the talking and commanding, and not Bildad.

'Come here, ye sons of bachelors,' he cried, as the sailors lingered at the main-mast. 'Mr. Starbuck, drive them here.'

'Strike the tent there!'--was the next order. As I hinted before, this buffalo-bone marquee was never pitched except in winter; and at the Pequod, for thirty years, the order to strike the tent was well known to be the next thing to starting the plow.

'Heel to me! Blood and thunder!--jump!'--was the next command, and the crew sprang forward.

As the men gathered round, involuntarily I paused on my handspike, and told Franklin to do the same, thinking of the perils we both ran, in starting on the season with such a devil. I was comforting myself, however, with the thought that in pious Bildad might be found some salvation, when I felt a sudden sharp poke in my rear, and turning round, was horrified at the apparition of Peleg in the act of withdrawing his leg from my immediate vicinity. That was my first kick.

'Is that the way they dig in the minutemen?' he roared. 'Spring, thou sheep-head; spring, and break thy backbone! Why don't ye spring, I say, all of ye--spring! Frank! spring, thou chap with the red whiskers; spring there, Scotch-cap; spring, thou green pants. Spring, I say, all of ye, and spring your eyes out!' And so saying, he moved along, here and there using his leg very freely, while imperturbable Bildad kept leading off with his psalmody. Thinks I, Peleg must have been drinking something to-day.

At last we were all together. It was a short, cold Easter morning; and as the sun increased in the eastern sky and rose above the trees, we found ourselves blinded by a naked light. Lank Bildad, as the guide, began to trudge ahead, and ever and anon, as the old man headed into the brown fields of clodded, frozen mud, and stirred the shivering frost all over with his boots, and the winds howled, his steady notes were heard,--

'Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood, Stand dressed in living green. So to the Jews old Canaan stood, While Jordan rolled between.'

Never did those sweet words sound more sweetly to me than then. They were full of hope and fruition. Spite of this frigid spring morning close to the boisterous Atlantic, spite of my wet feet and wetter jacket, there was yet, it then seemed to me, many a pleasant haven in store; and meads and glades so eternally vernal, that the grass shot up by the spring, untrodden, unwilted, remains at midsummer.