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Moby Dick (or The Whale)
CHAPTER 15 Chowder.
Herman Melville
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       _ It was quite late in the evening when the little Moss came snugly to
       anchor, and Queequeg and I went ashore; so we could attend to no
       business that day, at least none but a supper and a bed. The
       landlord of the Spouter-Inn had recommended us to his cousin Hosea
       Hussey of the Try Pots, whom he asserted to be the proprietor of one
       of the best kept hotels in all Nantucket, and moreover he had assured
       us that Cousin Hosea, as he called him, was famous for his chowders.
       In short, he plainly hinted that we could not possibly do better than
       try pot-luck at the Try Pots. But the directions he had given us
       about keeping a yellow warehouse on our starboard hand till we opened
       a white church to the larboard, and then keeping that on the larboard
       hand till we made a corner three points to the starboard, and that
       done, then ask the first man we met where the place was: these
       crooked directions of his very much puzzled us at first, especially
       as, at the outset, Queequeg insisted that the yellow warehouse--our
       first point of departure--must be left on the larboard hand, whereas
       I had understood Peter Coffin to say it was on the starboard.
       However, by dint of beating about a little in the dark, and now and
       then knocking up a peaceable inhabitant to inquire the way, we at
       last came to something which there was no mistaking.
       Two enormous wooden pots painted black, and suspended by asses' ears,
       swung from the cross-trees of an old top-mast, planted in front of an
       old doorway. The horns of the cross-trees were sawed off on the
       other side, so that this old top-mast looked not a little like a
       gallows. Perhaps I was over sensitive to such impressions at the
       time, but I could not help staring at this gallows with a vague
       misgiving. A sort of crick was in my neck as I gazed up to the two
       remaining horns; yes, TWO of them, one for Queequeg, and one for me.
       It's ominous, thinks I. A Coffin my Innkeeper upon landing in my
       first whaling port; tombstones staring at me in the whalemen's
       chapel; and here a gallows! and a pair of prodigious black pots too!
       Are these last throwing out oblique hints touching Tophet?
       I was called from these reflections by the sight of a freckled woman
       with yellow hair and a yellow gown, standing in the porch of the inn,
       under a dull red lamp swinging there, that looked much like an
       injured eye, and carrying on a brisk scolding with a man in a purple
       woollen shirt.
       "Get along with ye," said she to the man, "or I'll be combing ye!"
       "Come on, Queequeg," said I, "all right. There's Mrs. Hussey."
       And so it turned out; Mr. Hosea Hussey being from home, but leaving
       Mrs. Hussey entirely competent to attend to all his affairs. Upon
       making known our desires for a supper and a bed, Mrs. Hussey,
       postponing further scolding for the present, ushered us into a little
       room, and seating us at a table spread with the relics of a recently
       concluded repast, turned round to us and said--"Clam or Cod?"
       "What's that about Cods, ma'am?" said I, with much politeness.
       "Clam or Cod?" she repeated.
       "A clam for supper? a cold clam; is THAT what you mean, Mrs. Hussey?"
       says I, "but that's a rather cold and clammy reception in the winter
       time, ain't it, Mrs. Hussey?"
       But being in a great hurry to resume scolding the man in the purple
       Shirt, who was waiting for it in the entry, and seeming to hear
       nothing but the word "clam," Mrs. Hussey hurried towards an open door
       leading to the kitchen, and bawling out "clam for two," disappeared.
       "Queequeg," said I, "do you think that we can make out a supper for
       us both on one clam?"
       However, a warm savory steam from the kitchen served to belie the
       apparently cheerless prospect before us. But when that smoking
       chowder came in, the mystery was delightfully explained. Oh, sweet
       friends! hearken to me. It was made of small juicy clams, scarcely
       bigger than hazel nuts, mixed with pounded ship biscuit, and salted
       pork cut up into little flakes; the whole enriched with butter, and
       plentifully seasoned with pepper and salt. Our appetites being
       sharpened by the frosty voyage, and in particular, Queequeg seeing
       his favourite fishing food before him, and the chowder being
       surpassingly excellent, we despatched it with great expedition: when
       leaning back a moment and bethinking me of Mrs. Hussey's clam and cod
       announcement, I thought I would try a little experiment. Stepping to
       the kitchen door, I uttered the word "cod" with great emphasis, and
       resumed my seat. In a few moments the savoury steam came forth
       again, but with a different flavor, and in good time a fine
       cod-chowder was placed before us.
       We resumed business; and while plying our spoons in the bowl, thinks
       I to myself, I wonder now if this here has any effect on the head?
       What's that stultifying saying about chowder-headed people? "But
       look, Queequeg, ain't that a live eel in your bowl? Where's your
       harpoon?"
       Fishiest of all fishy places was the Try Pots, which well deserved
       its name; for the pots there were always boiling chowders. Chowder
       for breakfast, and chowder for dinner, and chowder for supper, till
       you began to look for fish-bones coming through your clothes. The
       area before the house was paved with clam-shells. Mrs. Hussey wore a
       polished necklace of codfish vertebra; and Hosea Hussey had his
       account books bound in superior old shark-skin. There was a fishy
       flavor to the milk, too, which I could not at all account for, till
       one morning happening to take a stroll along the beach among some
       fishermen's boats, I saw Hosea's brindled cow feeding on fish
       remnants, and marching along the sand with each foot in a cod's
       decapitated head, looking very slip-shod, I assure ye.
       Supper concluded, we received a lamp, and directions from Mrs. Hussey
       concerning the nearest way to bed; but, as Queequeg was about to
       precede me up the stairs, the lady reached forth her arm, and
       demanded his harpoon; she allowed no harpoon in her chambers. "Why
       not? said I; "every true whaleman sleeps with his harpoon--but why
       not?" "Because it's dangerous," says she. "Ever since young Stiggs
       coming from that unfort'nt v'y'ge of his, when he was gone four years
       and a half, with only three barrels of ILE, was found dead in my
       first floor back, with his harpoon in his side; ever since then I
       allow no boarders to take sich dangerous weepons in their rooms at
       night. So, Mr. Queequeg" (for she had learned his name), "I will
       just take this here iron, and keep it for you till morning. But the
       chowder; clam or cod to-morrow for breakfast, men?"
       "Both," says I; "and let's have a couple of smoked herring by way of
       variety." _
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本书目录

Etymology
Abstract
CHAPTER 1 Loomings.
CHAPTER 2 The Carpet-Bag.
CHAPTER 3 The Spouter-Inn.
CHAPTER 4 The Counterpane.
CHAPTER 5 Breakfast
CHAPTER 6 The Street.
CHAPTER 7 The Chapel.
CHAPTER 8 The Pulpit.
CHAPTER 9 The Sermon.
CHAPTER 10 A Bosom Friend.
CHAPTER 11 Nightgown.
CHAPTER 12 Biographical.
CHAPTER 13 Wheelbarrow.
CHAPTER 14 Nantucket.
CHAPTER 15 Chowder.
CHAPTER 16 The Ship.
CHAPTER 17 The Ramadan.
CHAPTER 18 His Mark.
CHAPTER 19 The Prophet.
CHAPTER 20 All Astir.
CHAPTER 21 Going Aboard.
CHAPTER 22 Merry Christmas.
CHAPTER 23 The Lee Shore.
CHAPTER 24 The Advocate.
CHAPTER 25 Postscript.
CHAPTER 26 Knights and Squires.
CHAPTER 27 Knights and Squires.
CHAPTER 28 Ahab.
CHAPTER 29 Enter Ahab; to Him, Stubb.
CHAPTER 30 The Pipe.
CHAPTER 31 Queen Mab.
CHAPTER 32 Cetology.
CHAPTER 33 The Specksynder.
CHAPTER 34 The Cabin-Table.
CHAPTER 35 The Mast-Head.
CHAPTER 36 The Quarter-Deck.
CHAPTER 37 Sunset.
CHAPTER 38 Dusk.
CHAPTER 39 First Night Watch.
CHAPTER 40 Midnight, Forecastle.
CHAPTER 41 Moby Dick.
CHAPTER 42 The Whiteness of The Whale.
CHAPTER 43 Hark!
CHAPTER 44 The Chart.
CHAPTER 45 The Affidavit.
CHAPTER 46 Surmises.
CHAPTER 47 The Mat-Maker.
CHAPTER 48 The First Lowering.
CHAPTER 49 The Hyena.
CHAPTER 50 Ahab's Boat and Crew.
CHAPTER 51 The Spirit-Spout.
CHAPTER 52 The Albatross.
CHAPTER 53 The Gam.
CHAPTER 54 The Town-Ho's Story.
CHAPTER 55 Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales.
CHAPTER 56 Of the Less Erroneous Pictures of Whales, and the True Pictures of Whaling Scenes.
CHAPTER 57 Of Whales in Paint; in Teeth; in Wood; in Sheet-Iron; in Stone; in Mountains; in Stars.
CHAPTER 58 Brit.
CHAPTER 59 Squid.
CHAPTER 60 The Line.
CHAPTER 61 Stubb Kills a Whale.
CHAPTER 62 The Dart.
CHAPTER 63 The Crotch.
CHAPTER 64 Stubb's Supper.
CHAPTER 65 The Whale as a Dish.
CHAPTER 66 The Shark Massacre.
CHAPTER 67 Cutting In.
CHAPTER 68 The Blanket.
CHAPTER 69 The Funeral.
CHAPTER 70 The Sphynx.
CHAPTER 71 The Jeroboam's Story.
CHAPTER 72 The Monkey-Rope.
CHAPTER 73 Stubb and Flask Kill a Right Whale; and Then Have a Talk Over Him.
CHAPTER 74 The Sperm Whale's Head--Contrasted View.
CHAPTER 75 The Right Whale's Head--Contrasted View.
CHAPTER 76 The Battering-Ram.
CHAPTER 77 The Great Heidelburgh Tun.
CHAPTER 78 Cistern and Buckets.
CHAPTER 79 The Prairie.
CHAPTER 80 The Nut.
CHAPTER 81 The Pequod Meets The Virgin.
CHAPTER 82 The Honour and Glory of Whaling.
CHAPTER 83 Jonah Historically Regarded.
CHAPTER 84 Pitchpoling.
CHAPTER 85 The Fountain.
CHAPTER 86 The Tail.
CHAPTER 87 The Grand Armada.
CHAPTER 88 Schools and Schoolmasters.
CHAPTER 89 Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish.
CHAPTER 90 Heads or Tails.
CHAPTER 91 The Pequod Meets The Rose-Bud.
CHAPTER 92 Ambergris.
CHAPTER 93 The Castaway.
CHAPTER 94 A Squeeze of the Hand.
CHAPTER 95 The Cassock.
CHAPTER 96 The Try-Works.
CHAPTER 97 The Lamp.
CHAPTER 98 Stowing Down and Clearing Up.
CHAPTER 99 The Doubloon.
CHAPTER 100 Leg and Arm.
CHAPTER 101 The Decanter.
CHAPTER 102 A Bower in the Arsacides.
CHAPTER 103 Measurement of The Whale's Skeleton.
CHAPTER 104 The Fossil Whale.
CHAPTER 105 Does the Whale's Magnitude Diminish?--Will He Perish?
CHAPTER 106 Ahab's Leg.
CHAPTER 107 The Carpenter.
CHAPTER 108 Ahab and the Carpenter.
CHAPTER 109 Ahab and Starbuck in the Cabin.
CHAPTER 110 Queequeg in His Coffin.
CHAPTER 111 The Pacific.
CHAPTER 112 The Blacksmith.
CHAPTER 113 The Forge.
CHAPTER 114 The Gilder.
CHAPTER 115 The Pequod Meets The Bachelor.
CHAPTER 116 The Dying Whale.
CHAPTER 117 The Whale Watch.
CHAPTER 118 The Quadrant.
CHAPTER 119 The Candles.
CHAPTER 120 The Deck Towards the End of the First Night Watch.
CHAPTER 121 Midnight.--The Forecastle Bulwarks.
CHAPTER 122 Midnight Aloft.--Thunder and Lightning
CHAPTER 123 The Musket.
CHAPTER 124 The Needle.
CHAPTER 125 The Log and Line.
CHAPTER 126 The Life-Buoy.
CHAPTER 127 The Deck.
CHAPTER 128 The Pequod Meets The Rachel.
CHAPTER 129 The Cabin.
CHAPTER 130 The Hat.
CHAPTER 131 The Pequod Meets The Delight.
CHAPTER 132 The Symphony.
CHAPTER 133 The Chase--First Day.
CHAPTER 134 The Chase--Second Day.
CHAPTER 135 The Chase.--Third Day.
Epilogue - "AND I ONLY AM ESCAPED ALONE TO TELL THEE"