ON THE BEACH AT DAYTONA. 55 
alleviation rather than a cure; but taken 
long enough, and with a sufficient mixture of 
enthusiasm, — a true sine gua non, — it will 
be found efficacious, I believe, in all ordinary 
cases of dyspepsia. 
My Indiana man was far from being alone 
in his cheerful pursuit. Ifstrangers, men or 
women, met me on the beach and wished to 
say something more than good-morning, they 
were sure to ask, “ Have you found any 
pretty shells?” One woman was a collector 
of a more businesslike turn. She had 
brought a camp-stool, and when I first saw 
her in the distance was removing her shoes, 
and putting on rubber boots. Then she 
moved her stool into the surf, sat upon it 
with a tin pail beside her, and, leaning for- 
ward over the water, fell to doing something, 
—I could not tell what. She was so indus- 
trious that I did not venture to disturb her, 
as I passed; but an hour or two afterward 
I overtook her going homeward across the 
peninsula with her invalid husband, and she 
showed me her pail full of the tiny coquina 
clams, which she said were very nice for soup, 
as indeed I knew. Some days later, I found 
a man collecting them for the market, with 
