Ten of Wands

 

Meaning: Responsibilities, and a burden.

Depiction: Dough-Boy, the steward, hands piled high with dishes,  nervously serves the three harpooneers (Daggoo, Tashtego, and Queequeg) as they regard him laughingly. The ten harpoons of the suit lean against the wall behind the table.

Text: Chapter 34- The Cabin Table.
Such portentous appetites had Queequeg and Tashtego, that to fill out the vacancies made by the previous repast, often the pale Dough-Boy was fain to bring on a great baron of salt-junk, seemingly quarried out of the solid ox. And if he were not lively about it, if he did not go with a nimble hop-skip-and-jump, then Tashtego had an ungentlemanly way of accelerating him by darting a fork at his back, harpoon-wise.

Comments: My first thought was that this card would depict Fleece the cook, as he's a tired old man with bad knees, unappreciated by the crew and mocked by Stubb. But again, the visual presentation issue crops up - the scene of Doughboy actually serving the table and putting up with sailors who give him a hard time creates a more graphic idea of a burden.