midnight
But if there happen to be an unduly slender , clumsy , or timorous wight in the ship , that wight is certain to be made a ship-keeper . It was so in the Pequod with the little negro Pippin by nick-name , Pip by abbreviation . Poor Pip ! ye have heard of him before ; ye must remember his tambourine on that dramatic midnight , so gloomy-jolly . In outer aspect , Pip and Dough-Boy made a match , like a black pony and a white one , of equal developments , though of dissimilar color , driven in one eccentric span . But while hapless Dough-Boy was by nature dull and torpid in his intellects , Pip , though over tender-hearted , was at bottom very bright , with that pleasant , genial , jolly brightness peculiar to his tribe ; a tribe , which ever enjoy all holidays and festivities with finer , freer relish than any other race . For blacks , the year 's calendar should show naught but three hundred and sixty-five Fourth of Julys and New Year 's Days .