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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 a cobbler’s job , that’s at an end in the middle , and at the beginning at the end . It’s the old woman’s tricks to be giving cobbling jobs . Lord ! what an affection all old women have for tinkers . I know an old woman of sixty - five who ran away with a bald - headed young tinker once . And that’s the reason I never would work for lonely widow old women ashore , when I kept my job - shop in the Vineyard ; they might have taken it into their lonely old heads to run off with me . But heigh - ho ! there are no caps at sea but snow - caps . Let me see . Nail down the lid ; caulk the seams ; pay over the same with pitch ; batten them down tight , and hang it with the snap - spring over the ship’s stern . Were ever such things done before with a coffin ? Some superstitious old carpenters , now , would be tied up in the rigging , ere they would do the job . But I’m made of knotty Aroostook hemlock ; I don’t budge . Cruppered with a coffin ! Sailing about with a grave - yard tray ! But never mind . We workers in woods make bridal - bedsteads and card - tables , as well as coffins and hearses . We work by the month , or by the job , or by the profit ; not for us to ask the why and wherefore of our work , unless it be too confounded cobbling , and then we stash it if we can . Hem ! I’ll do the job , now , tenderly . I’ll have me — let’s see — how many in the ship’s company , all told ? But I’ve forgotten . Any way , I’ll have me thirty separate , Turk’s - headed life - lines , each three feet long hanging all round to the coffin . Then , if the hull go down , there’ll be thirty lively fellows all fighting for one coffin , a sight not seen very often beneath the sun ! Come hammer , caulking - iron , pitch - pot , and marling - spike ! Let’s to it . ” CHAPTER 127 . The Deck . The coffin laid upon two line - tubs , between the vice - bench and the open hatchway ; the Carpenter caulking its seams ; the string of twisted oakum slowly unwinding from a large roll of it placed in the bosom of his frock . — Ahab comes slowly from the cabin - gangway , and hears Pip following him . “ Back , lad ; I will be with ye again presently . He goes ! Not this hand complies with my humor more genially than that boy . — Middle aisle of a church ! What’s here ? ” “ Life - buoy , sir . Mr . Starbuck’s orders . Oh , look , sir ! Beware the hatchway ! ” “ Thank ye , man . Thy coffin lies handy to the vault . ” “ Sir ? The hatchway ? oh ! So it does , sir , so it does . ” “ Art not thou the leg - maker ? Look , did not this stump come from thy shop ? ” “ I believe it did , sir ; does the ferrule stand , sir ? ”
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