"Remember," said the old man, "if you fail once, with a good chance, you must give it up and let somebody else come in. We can't affort to have any 'foopaws.'[2] Mr. Grafton thinks you will do it well, and has said a good word for you."
I bowed my acknowledgments to the mate for his good opinion, and said something I cannot tell what, to the effect that I would endeavor to justify it. Had I been previously notified, I might have had a "neat and appropriate speech" prepared for the occasion.
"I want you to remember," resumed the old man, "when you go alongside of a whale, that the voyage is depending upon you. Get a good scote, and grit the ends of your front teeth right off! If you do your work, I'll see that you are paid the lay. You may take charge of the larboard boat's craft, and rig the irons to suit your own hand. Bring your traps aft to-night, and take up your quarters in the cabin; and understand, if you live aft, I expect to find you aft, except when your duty calls you forward."
"Thank you, sir," I answered, "I'll do the best I can."
"That's all I want," said the captain, with a wink of intelligence to his mate, as if to say, "he'll do."
The change was soon made. I transferred myself and my effects to the region of forks and dishes, and became, at short notice, a petty officer, and member of the House of Lords, after only three months' actual service at sea. My companions in the "bull-room" were more select and less numerous than in the forecastle, consisting of young Fisher, the boatsteerer, the veracious cooper, and the Portuguese steward and cabin-boy. I had now the full benefit of the cooper's yarns, and he did not fail to entertain me with some choice specimens of Munchausenism during the first watch below that evening.
"Well, Blacksmith," said he, "you've seen a little of the other side of the picture, and you are satisfied that all whales are not taken so easily as that first one off the Western Islands. Not that I think this last one was a bad whale at all, but any whale is liable to get an unlucky clip at a boat when he feels the iron. Then you see, it was rugged weather, and the boat was going to leeward under good headway, so it was awkward work to keep clear of him."
"'Twas all an accident," said Fisher, who had come down to light his pipe, "as it always is, I think. Of course, if you throw an iron into a whale, he'll kick and struggle just as you or I would; and if a boat happens to be right in his way, why, the hardest fends off. And that's the way all boats are stove, I believe. I never saw a whale that I thought meant to stave a boat."
"Didn't you?" inquired the cooper. "Well, hold on, Fisher, perhaps you'll go another voyage and still not see a regular fighting whale. I hope so, at any rate. But it's no use for you to tell me there aint any, because I know better. I could tell you about a scrape we had in the Deucalion, only I don't want to scare you young fellows."
"O, fire away!" said Fisher. "You wont frighten me nor Blacksmith. What was it, that same whale that was so long you had to sling stages over the stern to cut his head off?"