CHAPTER XIV.
“How happy are they
Who have clams every day!”
One o’clock finds the girls, boys, nurses, dollies, and big Ranger escorting Mamma to the shore, where Jem, Ned, and Kit threw off their coats, which Artie saw meant work, and so immediately followed their example.
Now, fresh water must be brought, in pails, from the little spring which rippled from a rock near the water’s edge. A large iron bar had next to be run through a hole in one of the fence-posts, and upon it an iron pot was hung. To the small boys was given the privilege of picking up pieces of brush in the grove and piling them up under the kettle, all ready for Jem to kindle a grand fire. Then shoes and stockings had to be pulled off, and the four older boys, with shovels, rakes, and baskets, waded in the shallow water for the great work of digging clams. Artie thought it about the most prodigious sport he had ever dreamed of, and shouted loudly to all his brothers and sisters to look at every clam he was fortunate enough to bring to light, whilst Jack, always true to his belief that “paddling in the water was the best fun of anything,” sat on a rock, looking wistfully on and digging up the sand around him with his impatient little toes.
Then the baskets of clams were set down in the water, that the tide might wash through them and carry away some of the mud and sand which clings to them; and whilst this process was going on, Kit good humoredly brought a small part of the coveted Bay to the little ones. Oh, what a Kit! May runs to the house for the little wooden pails and shovels, and oh, how those little beavers work! What cannot be made out of sand and water I should like to know? Beautiful gardens appear, with rows of little trees, and walks paved with tiny shells and glittering pebbles. Old Lottie, who sprang to life from the family rag-bag, is condemned to be buried alive, whilst for Maude and Evangeline, dainty city dolls, fine thrones are piled up, from which they may look down on the dirty hands and aprons of their young mothers and uncles. Dr. Kit prescribes for Euphemia, who has fits of not being able to stand on her feet, continued “hot sand baths.” Then dollies are left in peace, whilst all turn their hands to manufacturing sand pies, and then wells must be dug and filled with water for future use.
Presently the children see Artie and Ned rushing to the house to harness Coco to the little cart to bring down black Sam’s loads of oysters and clams. Alice sets the example of cleanliness to her companions by going down to the water’s edge to wash her hands, and instantly the fashion takes, and Bristol Bay is turned into a huge water basin, and its sandy shores into a dressing-room.
Nan, Charlotte, and the Haven servants now came down from the house, in merry mood, bearing brown bread, a pail of butter packed in ice, chickens dressed for the gridiron, and a huge Indian pudding. Artie and Kit tumble over the Princesses Maude and Evangeline, making their thrones things of the past, in their haste to get over into the next field to dig the fresh, new potatoes. Gracie, under Sarah, the cook’s, direction, with Daisy for her assistant, prepares the chowder. First into the iron pot she places slices of pork, which she heats to a crisp brown; then go in layers of well-seasoned clams, shorn of their ugly shells by Jem’s jack-knife; layers of sliced potatoes, and onions and crackers. Then layers of clams again till the pot is quite filled. I assure you very delicious is the steamy odor which soon fills the air and quickens the appetite. Two wooden horses are saddled with boards and blanketed with snow-white table cloths, to bear the burden of the day’s feast. In the middle stands the grand Indian pudding, with a flag springing up from the centre to mark the day, and guarded on each side by great piles of brown-bread. Jem carefully brings the rich green watermelon from the spring where it has been cooling, and with deft hands and valuable jack-knife, cuts it up into most bewitching mitre forms. Sarah, the cook, ladles out, on huge platters, the smoking, savory chowder. Then Jem, with Mamma’s permission, gives the order to “Fall in!” and in much less time than it takes me to tell it, the little Madison Avenue Menagerie make the acquaintance of the Rhode Island shore dinner which has made the tiny State so famous.