40 DECEMBER OUT-OF-DOORS. 



the plump dark bodies, leaving the shells 

 in heaps upon the sand. The collectors of 

 these molluscan dainties knew them as qua- 

 haugs, and esteemed them accordingly ; but 

 my companion, a connoisseur in such mat- 

 ters, pronounced them not the true quahaug 

 ( Venus mercenaries, what a profanely ill- 

 sorted name, even for a bivalve!) but the 

 larger and coarser Cyprina islandica. The 

 man to whom we imparted this precious bit 

 of esoteric lore received it like a gentleman, 

 if I cannot add like a scholar. "We call 

 them quahaugs," he answered, with an ac- 

 cent of polite deprecation, as if it were not 

 in the least to be wondered at that he should 

 be found in the wrong. It was evident, at 

 the same time, that the question of a name 

 did not strike him as of any vital conse- 

 quence. Venus mercenaries or Cyprina 

 islandica, the savor iness of the chowder was 

 not likely to be seriously affected. 



It was good, I thought, to see so many 

 people out - of - doors. Most of them had 

 employment in the shops, probably, and on 

 grounds of simple economy, so called, would 

 have been wiser to have stuck to their lasts. 

 But man, after all that civilization has done 



