IN THE DUNES 39 



of our food, and blackberries were abundant. A 

 pump in the camp brought us sweet, cold water 

 from a driven well of thirty feet, in which the 

 water level was just below the surface of the 

 sand. Dead wood in the grove and driftwood 

 on the beach furnished our fire. Our bathtub 

 was the Atlantic ocean. We generally slept in 

 our tents and in the camp in the grove, but at 

 times, as the mood seized us, around our camp 

 fire on the top of a dune, or on the edge of the 

 sea beach. The gulls and terns and sandpipers 

 were our constant companions. We lived a free 

 and open-air existence on the sand and in the 

 water, and we were well sunned, sanded, and 

 salted. 



Many changes have taken place since that day. 

 The squatters are banished and their camps are 

 no more. Some of the shanties have been re- 

 moved bodily or in pieces by water, others like 

 'The Vendome," have been covered by the blow- 

 ing sand. A longer lease of life was granted to 

 my camp, but, in its isolation, it had been bat- 

 tered and looted by wandering clammers, and the 

 dunes are rapidly advancing to its destruction. 



