orning on which our tourists took the steamer for Wood's Holl
the sea lay shimmering in the heat, only stirred a little by the land
breeze, and it needed all the invigoration of the short ocean voyage to
brace them up for the intolerably hot and dusty ride in the cars through
the sandy part of Massachusetts. So long as the train kept by the
indented shore the route was fairly picturesque; all along Buzzard Bay
and Onset Bay and Monument Beach little cottages, gay with paint and
fantastic saw-work explained, in a measure, the design of Providence
in permitting this part of the world to be discovered; but the sandy
interior had to be reconciled to the deeper divine intention by a
trial of patience and the cultivation of the heroic virtues evoked by a
struggle for existence, of fitting men and women for a better country.
The travelers were confirmed, however, in their theory of the effect of
a sandy country upon the human figure. This is not a juicy land, if
the expression can be tolerated, any more than the sandy parts of
New Jersey, and its unsympathetic dryness is favorable to the
production--one can hardly say development of the lean, enduring,
flat-chested, and angular style of woman.

In order to reach Plymouth a wait of a couple of hours was necessary at
one of the sleepy but historic villages. There was here no tavern, no
restaurant, and nobody appeared to have any license to sell anything for
the refreshment of the travelers. But at some distance from the station,
in a two-roomed dwelling-house, a good woman was found who was willing
to cook a meal of victuals, as she explained, and a sign on her front
door attested, she had a right to do. What was at the bottom of the
local prejudice against letting the wayfaring man have anything to eat
and drink, the party could not ascertain, but the defiant air of the
woman revealed the fact that there was such a prejudice. She was a
noble, robust, gigantic specimen of her sex, well formed, strong as an
ox, with a resolute jaw, and she talked, through tightly-closed teeth,
in an aggressive manner. Dinner was ordered, and the party strolled
about the village pending its preparation; but it was not ready when
they returned. "I ain't goin' to cook no victuals," the woman explained,
not ungraciously, "till I know folks is goin' to eat it." Knowledge of
the world had made her justly cautious. She intended to set out a good
meal, and she had the true housewife's desire that it shoul