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He was a pure manipulator ; his brain , if he had ever had one , must have early oozed along into the muscles of his fingers . He was like one of those unreasoning but still highly useful , multum in parvo , Sheffield contrivances , assuming the exterior — though a little swelled — of a common pocket knife ; but containing , not only blades of various sizes , but also screw - drivers , cork - screws , tweezers , awls , pens , rulers , nail - filers , countersinkers . So , if his superiors wanted to use the carpenter for a screw - driver , all they had to do was to open that part of him , and the screw was fast : or if for tweezers , take him up by the legs , and there they were . Yet , as previously hinted , this omnitooled , open - and - shut carpenter , was , after all , no mere machine of an automaton . If he did not have a common soul in him , he had a subtle something that somehow anomalously did its duty . What that was , whether essence of quicksilver , or a few drops of hartshorn , there is no telling . But there it was ; and there it had abided for now some sixty years or more . And this it was , this same unaccountable , cunning life - principle in him ; this it was , that kept him a great part of the time soliloquizing ; but only like an unreasoning wheel , which also hummingly soliloquizes ; or rather , his body was a sentry - box and this soliloquizer on guard there , and talking all the time to keep himself awake . CHAPTER 108 . Ahab and the Carpenter . The Deck — First Night Watch . ( Carpenter standing before his vice - bench , and by the light of two lanterns busily filing the ivory joist for the leg , which joist is firmly fixed in the vice . Slabs of ivory , leather straps , pads , screws , and various tools of all sorts lying about the bench . Forward , the red flame of the forge is seen , where the blacksmith is at work . ) Drat the file , and drat the bone ! That is hard which should be soft , and that is soft which should be hard . So we go , who file old jaws and shinbones . Let’s try another . Aye , now , this works better ( sneezes ) . Halloa , this bone dust is ( sneezes ) — why it’s ( sneezes ) — yes it’s ( sneezes ) — bless my soul , it won’t let me speak ! This is what an old fellow gets now for working in dead lumber . Saw a live tree , and you don’t get this dust ; amputate a live bone , and you don’t get it ( sneezes ) . Come , come , you old Smut , there , bear a hand , and let’s have that ferule and buckle - screw ; I’ll be ready for them presently . Lucky now ( sneezes ) there’s no knee - joint to make ; that might puzzle a little ; but a mere shinbone — why it’s easy as making hop - poles ; only I should like to put a good finish on . Time , time ; if I but only had the time , I could turn him out as neat a leg now as ever ( sneezes ) scraped to a lady in a parlor . Those buckskin legs and calves of legs I’ve seen in shop windows wouldn’t compare at all .
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