Page 257 - Adventures in shadow-land

Let us cultivate silence, th^t I may have the talk

all to myself;” and the sea-owl looked at Moby
Dick in the most impressive and superior manner,

“ What difference, I repeat, does our happiness or
misery make in the huge sum of the universal— ?”

“ Look here 1” said Moby Dick, " i f you don’t
quit talking and tend to this young man, I'll swal­

low you. I don’t know as that will make much
difference in the universe, but it’ll make a sight

of difference to you/” and the whale opened his
tremendous jaws wide and showed all his teeth.

The sea-owl took the merman into his office on
the instant. He bound up his wound and attended

him very carefully, for he was by no means such a
fool as you would imagine from his conversation.

The merman was cured before long, and made the
sea-owl a handsome return for his services- The

owl was just as much pleased as though the money
had been a large item in the sum of the universe.
He gave the merman a present of his own poems

neatly bound in shark skin. He had several hun­

dred copies in his office, for he had issued them at
his own expense* They had been much praised,
but some way they did not sell. The sea-owl said