But whether it was because I was a young fellow of a heart naturally lively, or whether because I had escaped a dreadful death, so that the being on board this hull was almost as a rescue, 'tis true I felt no depression, no despondency in any marked degree when I looked round on stepping on deck and saw the leaden, rolling, frosting ocean bare, and viewed the tumbling, dismasted, mutilated hull, white fore and aft, bright with a hundred figures in ice, a most forlorn and dismal object as she bowed her naked bowsprit into the sallow trough, wearily leaning off the slant, with cataracts of foam hissing from the channels and scaling her sloping side. I could not but reflect that, though we were far south, whalers in plenty were to be met with in these seas, and that the hulk was stout and buoyant, and bade fair to last us our time in her, which might not extend beyond the morrow. So, with a good heart and a vow besides to do my manhood's best to cheer up my poor companion, to make her as comfortable as the means of the hulk and my sailor's judgment would allow, and to help preserve her life in God's own time, I looked along the deck, and then seeing how it must be, went to a scuttlebutt lashed forwards of the port gangway, and finding it half full, went to work on it with the chopper, knocked the hoops off, and the staves tumbled to the deck, letting slip a mass of fresh-water ice, shaped cask-wise. I struck off as much as would fill a kettle, leaving the rest to lie, and returned to the cabin. 'Now,' said I, knowing the tonic worth of work in a time like this, 'melt this for us, if you please. When the kettle boils we'll go to breakfast.' 'Is your ship in sight?' said she, getting up and taking the kettle and ice. 'No,' I answered, 'but something will be coming along soon. This is a great whaling ocean, you know.' 'What is your name?' she asked. 'Ralph Selby,' I replied. 'How did you know my name?' 'Wall, the boatswain, was full of you and Captain Burke and his wife when he was brought aboard out of the long-boat.' 'Yes, yes, I understand,' said she. 'I should have guessed it.' 'There are things to be done whilst you get the kettle to boil,' said I. 'You move about very easily, I see.' 'I am used to this dreadful monotonous rolling,' she answered. 'Can you lay your hands upon what we may want in the pantry?' 'Oh, yes. I know what's there. Shall I boil some coffee?' 'If you please,' said I, smiling to find her talking with a show of life. 'I am going to the captain's cabin to look to one or two matters,' and with that I left her.