The Gilder — Moby-Dick

Deep in the Japanese fishing grounds the Pequod hunts for long hours with little success. But on mild days the ocean looks golden and calm. Whalers sit in light boats on slow swells. The waves purr against the gunwales like cats. It is easy to forget the tiger heart beating under the velvet paw and the remorseless fang hidden beneath.

The sea looks like flowery earth and prairie grass. Distant masts peek above the waves like horses wading through green fields. Virgin vales and May-time sleep mix with the mystic mood on the water. Ishmael blends fact and fancy until calm scenes almost open golden doors in Ahab's soul. But Ahab's breath tarnishes every key. Ishmael also thinks about life. There is no straight path forward. Calms and storms cross forever. People loop through doubt and belief again and again.

That same day Starbuck looks down into the golden water from his boat. He whispers that the sea is loveliness like a young bride's eyes. He asks faith to beat fact and fancy to beat memory. Then he says he believes what he sees. Stubb leaps up fish-like in the golden light with sparkling scales. He swears that Stubb has always been jolly and always will be.