英语听书《白鲸记》第37期

  CHAPTER 10.A Bosom 1 Friend. 

 Returning to the Spouter 2 Inn from the Chapel 3,I found Queequeg there quite alone;he having left the Chapel before the benediction 4 some time. 
 He was sitting on a bench before the fire,with his feet on the stove hearth,and in one hand was holding close up to his face that little negro idol 5 of his; 
 peering hard into its face,and with a jack 6 knife gently whittling 7 away at its nose,meanwhile humming to himself in his heathenish way. 
 But being now interrupted,he put up the image;and pretty soon,going to the table,took up a large book there,and placing it on his lap began counting the pages with deliberate regularity; 
 at every fiftieth page as I fancied stopping a moment,looking vacantly around him,and giving utterance 8 to a long drawn 9 gurgling whistle of astonishment 10. 
 He would then begin again at the next fifty;seeming to commence at number one each time,as though he could not count more than fifty, 
 and it was only by such a large number of fifties being found together,that his astonishment at the multitude of pages was excited. 
 With much interest I sat watching him.Savage 11 though he was,and hideously 12 marred 13 about the face at least to my taste his countenance 14 yet had a something in it which was by no means disagreeable. 
 You can not hide the soul.Through all his unearthly tattooings,I thought I saw the traces of a simple honest heart;and in his large,deep eyes,fiery black and bold, 
 there seemed tokens of a spirit that would dare a thousand devils.And besides all this,there was a certain lofty bearing about the Pagan,which even his uncouthness 15 could not altogether maim 16. 
 He looked like a man who had never cringed and never had had a creditor 17.Whether it was,too,that his head being shaved,his forehead was drawn out in freer and brighter relief, 
 and looked more expansive than it otherwise would,this I will not venture to decide;but certain it was his head was phrenologically an excellent one.It may seem ridiculous, 
 but it reminded me of General Washington's head,as seen in the popular busts 18 of him.It had the same long regularly graded retreating slope from above the brows, 
 which were likewise very projecting,like two long promontories 19 thickly wooded on top.Queequeg was George Washington cannibalistically developed. 
 Whilst I was thus closely scanning him,half pretending meanwhile to be looking out at the storm from the casement,he never heeded 20 my presence,never troubled himself with so much as a single glance; 
 but appeared wholly occupied with counting the pages of the marvellous book.Considering how sociably 21 we had been sleeping together the night previous, 
 and especially considering the affectionate arm I had found thrown over me upon waking in the morning,I thought this indifference 22 of his very strange.