Then taking the glass he would make a turn or two of the quarter-deck, looking here and looking there, as if to satisfy himself that there was nothing between his ship and the horizon.

Then lowering his glass he would nod his head affirmatively, and say: "Mermaids ain't got nothin' at all to do with it.

Somebody's been a tellin' them whales I was comin'.

Whales has got more sense some years than other years.
Know when there's harpoons about as well as any of us, and keeps at a comfortable distance." One morning he appeared on deck in a more serious mood than usual.

Tite was officer of the watch that morning, and the old captain, after pacing up and down the deck several times, apparently in deep study, approached him with his hand extended.
"When I give a young man like you my hand, I gives him my heart, too.