Explore "Redburn" by Herman Melville on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Next day I went alone to the shipping office to sign the articles, and there I met a great crowd of sailors, who as soon as they found what I was after, began to tip the wink all round, and I overheard a fellow in a great flapping sou'wester cap say to another old tar in a shaggy monkey-jacket, "Twig his coat, d'ye see the buttons, that chap ain't going to sea in a merchantman, he's going to shoot whales. I say, maty-look here-how d'ye sell them big buttons by the pound?"
"Give us one for a saucer, will ye? " said another.