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The carpenter measured Queequeg carefully , and he made a coffin from some old dark wood . When it was ready , Queequeg asked the men to bring it to him . He put his harpoon into it , and a bag with some things from his island . Then he asked the men to lift him into the coffin . He lay there with his little god Yojo on his chest , and he looked perfectly calm . “ It is good , ” he said . “ Very comfortable . ” Little Pip stood by the coffin and held Queequeg’s hand . “ Poor Queequeg ! ” he said softly . “ When you go to your islands , look for Pip . He has been lost for a long time . ” I sat by my friend all day . I was sure that I was going to lose him . But then something surprising happened . Queequeg suddenly sat up . “ I cannot die yet , ” he said . “ I have remembered something that I must do on land . ” He believed that a man could decide whether to die or to live . If he did not want to die , then a mere illness could not kill him . And it was true . A few days later he was well again . Soon he was strong and healthy , and he jumped up and stretched his arms . After that , he used the coffin as a sea chest . He kept his clothes in it . In the evenings he sat and carved into the lid the same patterns that covered his own skin . A wise man on his island once drew these patterns on him . They told the story of the earth and the sky , but Queequeg himself could not read them . Soon we passed the last islands and sailed out into the great Pacific Ocean . This was the part of the world where Moby Dick usually swam in this season . Ahab felt it too . He hardly slept at all now . He told the ship’s blacksmith to make a special harpoon for the white whale . It was made from the strongest iron on the ship , and Ahab watched every blow of the hammer . Every day he looked up at the gold coin on the mast . It was still there , waiting . XII . The Typhoon One evening , near Japan , a typhoon hit us . A typhoon is a terrible storm that comes in the seas of Asia . The wind tore our sails to pieces , and huge black waves crashed over the deck . The thunder was so loud that we could not hear each other . Lightning struck the sea all around us . Then something frightening happened . On the top of every mast a pale fire appeared . It looked like three tall white candles , burning high in the dark sky . The sailors stood frozen with fear . “ Look up , men ! ” cried Starbuck . “ God is warning us ! This is a sign that we must turn back ! ” But Ahab stood by the main mast and held on to the chains . He looked up at the white fire without fear . The point of his new harpoon was burning with the same pale fire , like a torch .
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