"Dead Trees Love the Fire" 167 



Sweep a flat space upon the sand, and lay upon 

 it the sort of griddle made for the purpose, 

 which can be found all over Long Island. The 

 clams are held upright in this griddle, which 

 holds at least one hundred, and sometimes 

 more. Right on top of the clams build a loose 

 fire of the driftwood, and after it has blazed 

 well for five minutes, and the clams begin to 

 hiss violently, half smother it with wet sea- 

 weed ; a moment after, one or two clams may 

 be tested. Pick one out with a pair of tongs 

 and throw it up in the air, letting it come down 

 upon any hard surface, a board or a stone. If 

 it flies open, all is well, and the feast may be- 

 gin ; if not, the clams are not quite done. 

 When all is ready, shovel them into a large tin 

 pan. We always keep the implements for a 

 clam-bake in one of the lockers of the boat, for 

 scores of times every summer we find that we 

 can have a clam-bake when we least expected 

 it, just as it happened this morning. Two 

 hundred clams disappeared among seven of us, 

 almost sooner than it takes to tell the tale, and 

 back we went to our work. 



As I shouldered my axe again I could not 



