"I think I like it best," said Lois, laughing a little; "but we go for clams."
"Can you get them yourself?"
"Certainly! It is great fun. While you go to drive in the Park, we go to dig clams. And I think we have the best of it too, for a stand-by."
"Do tell me about the clams."
"Do you like them?"
"I suppose I do. I do not know them. What are they? the usual little soup fish?"
"I don"t know about soup fish. O no! not those; they are _not_ the sort Mrs. Wishart has sometimes. These are long; ours in the Sound, I mean; longish and blackish; and do not taste like the clams you have here."
"Better, I hope?"
"A great deal better. There is nothing much pleasanter than a dish of long clams that you have dug yourself. At least we think so."
"Because you have got them yourself!"
"No; but I suppose that helps."
"So you get them by digging?"
"Yes. It is funny work. The clams are at the edge of the water, where the rushes grow, in the mud. We go for them when the tide is out. Then, in the blue mud you see quant.i.ties of small holes as big as a lead pencil would make; those are the clam holes."
"And what then?"
"Then we dig for them; dig with a hoe; and you must dig very fast, or the clam will get away from you. Then, if you get pretty near him he spits at you."
"I suppose that is a harmless remonstrance."
"It may come in your face."
Mr. Dillwyn laughed a little, looking at this fair creature, who was talking to him, and finding it hard to imagine her among the rushes racing with a long clam.
"It is wet ground I suppose, where you find the clams?"
"O yes. One must take off shoes and stockings and go barefoot. But the mud is warm, and it is pleasant enough."
"The clams must be good, to reward the trouble?"
"We think it is as pleasant to get them as to eat them."
"I believe you remarked, this sport is your subst.i.tute for our Central Park?"
"Yes, it is a sort of a subst.i.tute."
"And, in the comparison, you think you are the gainers?"
"You cannot compare the two things," said Lois; "only that both are ways of seeking pleasure."
"So you say; and I wanted your comparative estimate of the two ways."
"Central Park is new to me, you know," said Lois; "and I am very fond of riding,--_driving_, Mrs. Wishart says I ought to call it; the scene is like fairyland to me. But I do not think it is better fun, really, than going after clams. And the people do not seem to enjoy it a quarter as much."
"The people whom you see driving?"
"Yes. They do not look as if they were taking much pleasure. Most of them."
"Pray why should they go, if they do not find pleasure in it?"
Lois looked at her questioner.
"You can tell, better than I, Mr. Dillwyn. For the same reasons, I suppose, that they do other things."
"Pardon me,--what things do you mean?"
"I mean, _all_ the things they do for pleasure, or that are supposed to be for pleasure. Parties--luncheon parties, and dinners, and--" Lois hesitated.
"_Supposed_ to be for pleasure!" Philip echoed the words. "Excuse me--but what makes you think they do not gain their end?"
"People do not look really happy," said Lois. "They do not seem to me as if they really enjoyed what they were doing."
"You are a nice observer!"
"Am I?"
"Pray, at--I forget the name--your home in the country, are the people more happily const.i.tuted?"
"Not that I know of. Not more happily const.i.tuted; but I think they live more natural lives."
"Instance!" said Philip, looking curious.
"Well," said Lois, laughing and colouring, "I do not think they do things unless they want to. They do not ask people unless they want to see them; and when they _do_ make a party, everybody has a good time.
It is not brilliant, or splendid, or wonderful, like parties here; but yet I think it is more really what it is meant to be."
"And here you think things are not what they are meant to be?"
"Perhaps I am mistaken," said Lois modestly. "I have seen so little."
"You are not mistaken in your general view. It would be a mistake to think there are no exceptions."
"O, I do not think that."
"But it is matter of astonishment to me, how you have so soon acquired such keen discernment. Is it that you do not enjoy these occasions yourself?"
"O, I enjoy them intensely," said Lois, smiling. "Sometimes I think I am the only one of the company that does; but _I_ enjoy them."