24 South Beach. 



gets a living, and pays no taxes. " A fellow must do 

 something," says he, " and so I came here and built my 

 house. I used to live over on Long Island." In the 

 morning the sun comes up from the sea in front of his 

 door, and at evening it sinks behind the western hills; 

 but no man conies to disturb the hermit. He is a stranger 

 to the rush and the set tasks of the world, and he is free, 

 where many are fettered. 



Of drift wood there is no end, neither is there of old 

 shoes, mousetraps, brooms and all other household utensils. 

 Even coal and metal objects are washed ashore. I found 

 a table one day, with a full complement of legs, and a 

 friend discovered a coffee pot, cover and all, and with a 

 blameless bottom. One might become quite a connoisseur 

 in bottles, for the Frenchman, the German, the Italian and 

 the Irishman each throws his bottle overboard, and com- 

 ing ashore they mix with the American bottles on the 

 beach. So various in shape and general appearance are 

 they that one readily falls to giving them supposed quali- 

 fications, such as phlegmatic, sanguine and bilious bottles. 

 I have seen those that looked ill though full of medicine, 

 and they are certainly often very blue. Some have con- 

 tained " St. Jacob's Oil for man and beast," and others of 

 a very odd shape that appear to have more difficulty in 

 standing than most bottles, often protrude from the pock- 

 ets of amateur fishermen. 



There is nothing with which the waves seem to take 

 more sport than with an empty barrel, and if the wind be 

 high its bouncings and tossings are wild and fantastic. It 

 rolls down the beach to meet the incoming wave, and 



