ON THE BEACH AT DAYTON A. 55 



alleviation rather than a cure ; but taken 

 long enough, and with a sufficient mixture of 

 enthusiasm, a true sine qua non, it will 

 be found efficacious, I believe, in all ordinary 

 cases of dyspepsia. 



My Indiana man was far from being alone 

 in his cheerful pursuit. If strangers, men or 

 women, met me on the beach and wished to 

 say something more than good-morning, they 

 were sure to ask, " Have you found any 

 pretty shells ? " One woman was a collector 

 of a more businesslike turn. She had 

 brought a camp-stool, and when I first saw 

 her in the distance was removing her shoes, 

 and putting on rubber boots. Then she 

 moved her stool into the surf, sat upon it 

 with a tin pail beside her, and, leaning for- 

 ward over the water, fell to doing something, 

 I could not tell what. She was so indus- 

 trious that I did not venture to disturb her, 

 as I passed ; but an hour or two afterward 

 I overtook her going homeward across the 

 peninsula with her invalid husband, and she 

 showed me her pail full of the tiny coquina 

 clams, which she said were very nice for soup, 

 as indeed I knew. Some days later, I found 

 a man collecting them for the market, with 



