THE CLAM FARM 199 



course of time, what one sows even clams if 

 one sows clams ; but it is a more solemn saying 

 that one shall cease to reap, after a time, and for 

 all eternity, what one has not sown even clams 

 out of the exhausted flats of the New England 

 coast, and the sandy shores of her rivers that run 

 brackish to the sea. 



Hitherto we have reaped where we have not 

 sown, and gathered where we have not strawed. 

 But that was during the days of our industrial 

 pilgrimage. Now our way no longer threads the 

 wilderness, where manna and quails and clams 

 are to be had fresh for the gathering. Only bar- 

 berries, in my half-wild uplands, are to be had 

 nowadays for the gathering. There are still enough 

 barberries to go round without planting or tres- 

 passing, for the simple, serious reason that the 

 barberries do not carry their sugar on their 

 bushes with them, as the clams carry their salt. 

 The Sugar Trust carries the barberries' sugar. 

 But soon or late every member of that trust shall 

 leave his bag of sweet outside the gate of Eden or 

 the Tombs. Let him hasten to drop it now, lest 

 once inside he find no manner of fruit, for his 

 eternal feeding, but barberries ! 



