Moby Dick

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weather there on the Line. But it was no use--I did all I could; sat up
with him nights; was very severe with him in the matter of diet--"

"Oh, very severe!" chimed in the patient himself; then suddenly altering
his voice, "Drinking hot rum toddies with me every night, till he
couldn't see to put on the bandages; and sending me to bed, half seas
over, about three o'clock in the morning. Oh, ye stars! he sat up with
me indeed, and was very severe in my diet. Oh! a great watcher, and very
dietetically severe, is Dr. Bunger. (Bunger, you dog, laugh out! why
don't ye? You know you're a precious jolly rascal.) But, heave ahead,
boy, I'd rather be killed by you than kept alive by any other man."

"My captain, you must have ere this perceived, respected sir"--said the
imperturbable godly-looking Bunger, slightly bowing to Ahab--"is apt to
be facetious at times; he spins us many clever things of that sort. But
I may as well say--en passant, as the French remark--that I myself--that
is to say, Jack Bunger, late of the reverend clergy--am a strict total