Summary

The story begins as Arnold Lovejoy returns to New Bedford after a failed Arctic voyage and walks uphill toward the shipowners’ houses with a letter pressed against his breast. He repeats, “Heavenly days! Behold!” (2). On his way he watches children surround a dog and prepare to hurt it, a scene that unsettles him, and then he forces himself onward.

Lovejoy is received inside the Ashley home, a dim mansion decorated with paintings of whale hunts and portraits that record family wealth. In a candlelit room, Mr. and Mrs. Ashley read the news he has carried: the whaleship Dromo has been crushed by ice in the Chukchi Sea, her half-full cargo unloaded and stored ashore, and her ship’s log retained by her captain, Benjamin Leander, who intends to remain in the north. The Ashleys press Lovejoy for details, and he explains that Leander appeared...