em. See where the clam lives, and then drive at
him, and don't be slow about it; and then when the clam spits at you,
you know you're on his heels--or on his track, I should say; and you
take care of your eyes and go ahead, till you catch up with him; and
then you've got him. And every one you throw into your basket you feel
gladder and gladder; in fact, as the basket grows heavy, your heart
grows light. And that's diggin' for long clams."

"The best part of it is the hunt, isn't it?"

"I'll take your opinion on that after supper."

Mr. Lenox laughed, and he and his wife sauntered round to the front
again. The freshness, the sweetness, the bright rich colouring of sky
and water and land, the stillness, the strangeness, the novelty, all
moved Mr. Lenox to say,

"I would not have missed this for a hundred dollars!"

"Missed what?" asked his wife.

"This whole afternoon."

"It's one way that people live, I suppose."

"Yes, for they really do live; there is no stagnation; that is one
thing that strikes me."

"Don't you want to buy a farm here, and settle down?" asked Mrs. Lenox
scornfully. "Live on hymns and long clams?"

Meanwhile the interior of the bathing-house was changing its aspect.
Part of the partition of boards had been removed and a long table
improvised, running the length of the house, and made of planks laid on
trestles. White cloths hid the rudeness of this board, and dishes and
cups and viands were giving it a most hospitable look. A whiff of
coffee aroma came now and then through the door at the back of the
house, which opened near the place of cookery; piles of white bread and
brown gingerbread, and golden butter and rosy ham and new cheese, made
a most abundant and inviting display; and, after the guests were
seated, Mr. Sears came in bearing a great dish of the clams, smoking
hot.

Well, Mrs. Lenox was hungry, through the combined effects of salt air
and an early dinner; she found bread and butter and coffee and ham most
excellent, but looked askance at the dish of clams; which, however, she
saw emptied with astonishing rapidity. Noticing at last a striking heap
of shells beside her husband's plate, the lady's fastidiousness gave
way to curiosity; and after that,--it was well that another big dishful
was coming, or _somebody_ would have been obliged to go short.

At ten o'clock that evening Mr. and Mrs. Lenox took the night train to
Boston.

"I never passed a pleasanter afternoon in my l