Ahab's Secret Golden Treasures

At times, under an abated sun, afloat all day upon smooth, slow heaving swells, seated in his boat, light as a birch canoe, and so sociably mixing with the soft waves themselves that like hearthstone cats, they purr against the gunwall. These are the times of dreamy quietude, when beholding the tranquil beauty and brilliancy of the ocean's skin,. one forgets the tiger heart that pants beneath it. But if these secret golden keys did seem to open in him his own secret golden treasuries, yet did his breath upon them prove but tarnishing. O grassy glades, o ever vernal, endless