12 ALONGSHORE ^ 



created first personalities, then gods and goddesses, 

 out of nature. If humanity changes but little, it 

 is certain that those who have to do with the 

 oldest things — earth and the sea — change last 

 and least of all. In a measure, they are pagans 

 still. 



Now that I have worked and watched upon 

 the beach by day and night, I cannot see It any 

 more with the eyes of a seaside visitor. Every- 

 thing about it means too much. It has undergone 

 the change from an acquaintance, whom one likes, 

 into a friend whom one loves, yet hates for a 

 moment sometimes. Only some chance sound, or 

 peculiarly radiant light, or salty whiff of seaweed, 

 recalls the old feeling, when the beach was simply 

 a sunny bank of shingle, pleasant to lounge upon 

 and interesting to watch; when boats, belonging 

 to I did not know whom, lay along it, and fisher- 

 men, whose nicknames and names I had not learnt, 

 mended their nets or stood about with their hands 

 in their pockets, for ever idle, as it seemed, and 

 picturesque, because the toilsome part of their 

 work was seldom seen. Great waves were then a 

 glory; so they are now; but it is also a question 

 of what body of water they contain and how far 

 they will run up the beach among the boats. 



