2. TIDES AND THE BEACH 



From things very familiar or intimately a part of 

 daily life, the definite article the Is, In our dialect, 

 clipped off. *In house,' we say, Instead of 'In 

 the house' ; 'down under cliff,' instead of 'under 

 the cliff'; and even 'up to station.' Most of all 

 do we say 'out to beach' where people from land 

 would say 'out to the beach.' 'Have 'ee been 

 out to beach?' we ask each other at breakfast, 

 unless, of course, one of us has had to be out 

 there for boat-hauling, or has been mackerel- 

 hooking at dawn, or has returned In the night 

 from drifting or prawning. It is as If those 

 things from which the the Is clipped have ceased, 

 on account of close association with mankind, to 

 be entirely inanimate, and have developed per- 

 sonalities. The words denoting them have be- 

 come, as It were, proper names. By some such 

 mental process the ancient pagans must have 



