“What for?” I sez.
“Oh, jest for fun. They’ll go into the water 286 mebby, and then come ashore and roll and tumble in the sand, men, wimmen, and children, mostly foreigners,” sez he.
I sez, “It don’t seem as if Josiah would go into that bizness; he always despised sand.”
“Well,” sez he, “as I come by there jest now, I see somebody that looked like Josiah, goin’ towards the beach with a girl by him.”
I turned onto my heel to once and asked sternly, “Where is that beach? And where is that sand?” He told me and I made for it to once. I hain’t got a jealous hair in my head, but I thought I’d go. Well, it wuz a sight to see, acres and acres of sand dotted with men, wimmen, and children. And beyond, the melancholy ocean, also dotted with swimming heads, with bodies attached, so I spozed. Well might Atlantic be melancholy to see such sights, hundreds of folks comin’ out of the water, hundreds goin’ in, and other hundreds walkin’ or rollin’ in the sand or throwin’ it at each other or half covered up with it.
And as for the clothes they had on, I thought no wonder the Ocean and I sithed to see it, no money would tempt me to wear ’em to mill or meetin’, or to let Josiah wear ’em. They didn’t look decent. Either they wuz scrimped for cloth, or they wanted to look so; whichever way it wuz, I pitied ’em.
“It wuz a sight to see, acres and acres of sand dotted with men, wimmen, and children.” (See page 286)