Chapter 12: X

X A Bosom Friend Returning to the Spouter-Inn from the Chapel, I found Queequeg there quite alone; he having left the Chapel before the benediction 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 of his; peering hard into its face, and with a jackknife gently whittling away at its nose, meanwhile humming to himself in his heathenish way. But being now interrupted, he put up …