South Beach. 23 



from which they rise with weird screams. They often sit 

 motionless in rows at low water line, apparently many of 

 them asleep, and when the tide rises they float on the 

 waves in nearly the same place where they were standing 

 before. A few of their cries sound remarkably like some 

 one hoisting a sail with the aid of a creaking pulley, and 

 1 have several times been deceived thereby, and have 

 looked about expecting to find a mariner close in shore. 



Of all the shells that line the shore, mid " gingle shells," 

 that rattle with a metallic sound, and " boat shells," whose 

 inner coloring is equal to anything in nature's art, there is 

 one of curious shape and delicate marking called the shell 

 of Pandora. Three faint lines radiate from one end of the 

 hinge over the pearly surface, and the valves are generally 

 found together, resisting storm and waves. There is a 

 little space between, for they are not usually tightly closed, 

 but Hope being so great a thing is still held as captive. 

 Thus is this shell most aptly named, and we peer within 

 to see what may be hidden there, and in the grains of sand 

 are our hopes and our fortunes portrayed, for perhaps to 

 the world the one is as important as the other. 



On cold Winter days, as well as in Summer, a blind 

 man comes out, and, with a long stick feels carefully for 

 the drift wood. Oftentimes the small boys collect sticks, 

 and placing them in his path, watch him find them. 



A hermit came to the shore a few years ago and built 

 his house of drift wood on the sand near the bridge, cover- 

 ing it with old tin and putting one small pane in the front for 

 a window. With the fish he catches, the gulls and ducks 

 that he shoots, and what can be found on the beach, he 



