Bartleby the Scrivener: A Tale of Wall Street

116 THE PIAZZA TALES
the latter objected ;
which disinterestedness not a little
pleased the American ; and so mouthfuls all around
were given alike to whites and blacks ; excepting one
bottle of cider, which Babo insisted upon setting aside
for his master.
Here it may be observed that as on the first visit of
the boat, the American had not permitted his men to
board the ship, neither did he now ; being unwilling to
add to the confusion of the decks.
Not uninfluenced by the peculiar good-humour at
present prevailing, and for the time oblivious of any
but benevolent thoughts, Captain Delano, who, from
recent indications, counted upon a breeze within an
hour or two at furthest, dispatched the boat back to
the sealer, with orders for all the hands that could be
spared immediately to set about rafting casks to the
them. Likewise he bade word
watering-place and filling
be carried to his chief officer, that if, against present
expectation, the ship was not brought to anchor by
sunset, he need be under no concern ; for as there was
to be a full moon that night, he (Captain Delano) would
remain on board ready to play the pilot, come the wind
soon or late.
As the two captains stood together, observing the
departing boat— the servant, as it happened, having just
spied a spot on his master's velvet sleeve, and silently
engaged rubbing it out—the American expressed his
regrets that the San Dominick had no boats ; none, at
least, but the unseaworthy old hulk of the long-boat,
which, warped as a camel's skeleton in the desert, and
almost as bleached, lay pot-wise inverted amidships,
one side a little tipped, furnishing a subterraneous sort
of den for family groups of the blacks, mostly women
and small children ; who, squatting on old mats below,
or perched above in the dark dome, on the elevated