Nobody

…

'One army of the living God,
To his command we bow;
Part of his host have crossed the flood
And part are crossing now.

....

'His militant embodied host,
With wishful looks we stand,
And long to see that happy coast,
And reach the heavenly land.

'E'en now, by faith, we join our hands
With those that went before;
And greet the blood-besprinkled bands
On the eternal shore.'"

CHAPTER XXXI

LONG CLAMS

There was a soft ring in Lois's voice; it might be an echo of thetrumpets and cymbals of which she had been speaking. Yet not done foreffect; it was unconscious, and delicate as indescribable, for whichreason it had the greater power. The party remained silent for a fewminutes, all of them; during which a killdeer on the fence uttered hislittle shout of gratulation; and the wild, salt smell coming from theSound and the not distant ocean, joined with the silence and Lois'shymn, gave a peculiar impression of solitude and desolation to at leastone of the party. The cart entered an enclosure, and halted before asmall building at the edge of the shore, just above high-water mark.There were several such buildings scattered along the shore atintervals, some enclosed, some not. The whole breadth of the Sound layin view, blinking under the summer sun; yet the air was far fresherhere than it had been in the village. The tide was half out; a widestretch of wet sand, with little pools in the hollows, intervenedbetween the rocks and the water; the rocks being no magnificentbuttresses of the land, but large and small boulders strewn along theshore edge, hung with seaweed draperies; and where there were not rocksthere was a growth of rushes on a mud bottom. The party were helped outof the cart one by one, and the strangers surveyed the prospect.

"'Afar in the desert,' this is, I declare," said the gentleman.

"Might as well be," echoed his wife. "Whatever do you come here for?"she said, turning to Lois; "and what do you do when you are here?"

"Get some clams and have supper."

"Clams!" – with an inimitable accent. "Where do you get clams?"

"Down yonder – at the edge of the rushes."

"Who gets them? and how do you get them?"

"I guess I shall get them to-day. O, we do it with a hoe."

Lois stayed for no more, but ran in. The interior room of the house, which was very large for a bathing-house, was divided in two by apartition. In the inner, smaller room, Lois began busily to change herdress. On the walls hung a number of bathing suits of heavy flannel, one of which she appropriated. Charity came in after her.

"You ain't a goin' for clams, Lois? Well, I wouldn't, if I was you."

"Why not?"

"I wouldn't make myself such a sight, for folks to see."

"I don't at all do it for folks to see, but that folks may eat. We havebrought 'em here, and now we must give them something for supper."

"Are you goin' with bare feet?"

"Why not?" said Lois, laughing. "Do you think I am going to spoil mybest pair of shoes for vanity's sake?" And she threw off shoes andstockings as she spoke, and showed a pair of pretty little white feet, which glanced coquettishly under the blue flannel.

"Lois, what's brought these folks here?"

"I am sure I don't know."

"I wish they'd stayed where they belong. That woman's just turning upher nose at every blessed thing she sees."

"It won't hurt the Sound!" said Lois, laughing.

"What did they come for?"

"I can't tell; but, Charity, it will never do to let them go awayfeeling they got nothing by coming. So you have the kettle boiled, willyou, and the table all ready – and I'll try for the clams."

"They won't like 'em."

"Can't help that."

"And what am I going to do with Mr. Sears?"

"Give him his supper of course."

"Along with all the others?"

"You must. You cannot set two tables."

"There's aunt Anne!" exclaimed Charity; and in the next minute auntAnne came round to them by the front steps; for each half of thebathing-house had its own door of approach, as well as a door ofcommunication. Mrs. Marx came in, surveyed Lois, and heard Charity'sstatement.

"These things will happen in the best regulated families," sheremarked, beginning also to loosen her dress.

"What are you going to do, aunt Anne?"

"Going after clams, with Lois. We shall want a bushel or less; and wecan't wait till the moon rises, to eat 'em."

"And how am I going to set the table with them all there?"

Mrs. Marx laughed. "I expect they're like cats in a strange garret. Setyour table just as usual, Charry; push 'em out o' the way if they getin it. Now then, Lois!"

And, slipping down the steps and away off to the stretch of mud wherethe rushes grew, two extraordinary, flannel-clad, barefooted figures, topped with sun-bonnets and armed with hoes and baskets, were presentlyseen to be very busy there about something. Charity opened the door ofcommunication between the two parts of the house, and surveyed theparty. Mrs. Barclay sat on the step outside, looking over the plain ofwaters, with her head in her hand. Mrs. Armadale was in arocking-chair, just within the door, placidly knitting. Mr. and Mrs.Lenox, somewhat further back, seemed not to know just what to do withthemselves; and Madge, holding a little aloof, met her sister's eyewith an expression of despair and doubt. Outside, at the foot of thesteps, where Mrs. Barclay sat, lounged the ox driver.

"Ben here afore?" he asked confidentially of the lady.

"Yes, once or twice. I never came in an ox cart before."

"I guess you hain't," he replied, chewing a blade of rank grass whichhe had pulled for the purpose. "My judgment is we had a fust-rateentertainment, comin' down."

"I quite agree with you."