A day or two after the articles, everything aboard the Pequod betokens preparations hurrying to a close: old sails mended, new canvas and coils of rigging carried aboard, Peleg planted in his wigwam with a sharp eye on the hands while Bildad runs the stores and night falls long after the hold and rigging gangs knock off. Word goes out at every inn the day after Queequeg signs: chests on board before night, for there is no telling how soon she sails. Ishmael and Queequeg get down their traps yet resolve to sleep ashore till the last; as usual the notice stretches for days, which is no wonder when a three-years' housekeeping must be stowed with no grocer at the next port.
Melville unfolds the logic like a domestic inventory, beds and nut-crackers and what not, then the whaler's sharper dread: spare boats, spare spars, spare lines and harpoons, spare everythings, almost, but a spare Captain and duplicate ship. Aunt Charity, Bildad's lean indefatigable sister with a score of well-saved dollars in the venture, fetches pickles, quills, flannel for a rheumatic back, and on the last day boards with an oil-ladle in one hand and a still longer whaling lance in the other while Bildad marks his long list and Peleg hobbles out roaring down the hatchways and up to the mast-head before roaring back into his whalebone den.
Through the bustle Queequeg and Ishmael visit often, and as often Ishmael asks how Captain Ahab fares and when he will come aboard; getting better and better, expected every day, say Peleg and Bildad, who can attend to all fitting meanwhile. If Ishmael had been downright honest he would have seen in his heart that he did but half fancy committing to so long a voyage without once laying eyes on the absolute dictator of the open sea; already involved, he covers suspicion even from himself, says nothing, and tries to think nothing.
At last it is given out that some time next day the ship will certainly sail, and next morning they take a very early start: what one question about Captain Ahab will you still refuse to ask aloud when the wharf is already calling you aboard?
Coming Up in Chapter 21
Sailing day arrives and Ishmael must actually step aboard the Pequod. Grey mist at six o'clock, and he and Queequeg hurry toward the wharf where sailors already run ahead. Elijah blocks their path, hands on both shoulders, asking if they are going aboard and whether they will come back.
