"And shall I then pay over the same with pitch, sir?" moving his hand as
with a pitch-pot.
"Away! what possesses thee to this? Make a life-buoy of the coffin, and
no more.--Mr. Stubb, Mr. Flask, come forward with me."
"He goes off in a huff. The whole he can endure; at the parts he baulks.
Now I don't like this. I make a leg for Captain Ahab, and he wears it
like a gentleman; but I make a bandbox for Queequeg, and he won't put
his head into it. Are all my pains to go for nothing with that coffin?
And now I'm ordered to make a life-buoy of it. It's like turning an old
coat; going to bring the flesh on the other side now. I don't like this
cobbling sort of business--I don't like it at all; it's undignified;
it's not my place. Let tinkers' brats do tinkerings; we are their
betters. I like to take in hand none but clean, virgin, fair-and-square
mathematical jobs, something that regularly begins at the beginning, and
is at the middle when midway, and comes to an end at the conclusion; not
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