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"It is all part of your prescription," I said. "You told me I should marry, you know. Do you approve of my selection?" "Approve of it! Why, man, she's she's wonderful. Approve of YOUR selection! How about hers? You durned quahaug! How did you do it?" I gave him a condensed and hurried resume of the whole story.
"They don't call him 'The Quahaug' any more," she declared, indignantly. "He's been out of his shell more and seen more than most of the folks in this town." "I know it; I know it. And he's kept goin' ever since. Runnin' to New York, he and you," with a nod toward Frances, "and travelin' to Washin'ton and Niagary Falls and all. Wonder to me how he does as much writin' as he does.
They were strange thoughts, hopeless thoughts, ridiculous, unavailing thoughts. For me, Kent Knowles, quahaug, to permit myself to think in that way was worse than ridiculous; it was pitiful. This was a stern reality, this summer of mine in England, not a chapter in one of my romances. They ended happily; it was easy to make them end in that way.
"You did the only thing to be done," I answered, with decision. "You did what I lacked the courage to do. Of course it was best." "You're awful good to say so, but I don't know. What'll come of it goodness knows. When I think of you and and " "Don't think of me. I'm going to be a man if I can a quahaug, if I can't. At least I'm not going to be what I have been for the last month." "I know.
And she knows, just as I do, that Bayport's the best place in the world; don't you, Mrs. Knowles?" "Yes," said Frances, "I am sure of it, Mr. Tidditt." So Asaph went away triumphantly happy. After he had gone I apologized for him. "He's a fair sample," I said. "He is a quahaug, although he doesn't know it. He is a certain type, an exaggerated type, of American." Frances smiled.
Oysters were found in abundance all along shore, and of excellent quality; also the large clam known as the QUAHAUG, which when properly cooked and divested of its toughness is capital food; crabs, of delicate flavor and respectable size, were taken in hand-nets in any quantity; and flounders, mullets, and drum-fish were captured with little trouble.
The other boarders looked like quahaug dories abreast of the Marblehead Yacht Club. Oh, the Thompsons won every cup until the Smalls arrived on a Monday; then 'twas a dead heat. Mamma Small was built on the lines of old lady Thompson, only more so, and her daughter flew pretty nigh as many pennants as Barbara. Peter T. had 'em labeled the "Duchess" and "Irene dear" in a jiffy.
Hobbs to nag and find fault, there were no lonely meals, no scoldings when stockings were torn or face and hands soiled. And as a playground the beach was a wonderland. She and Jimmie Bacheldor picked up shells, built sand forts, skipped flat stones along the surface of the water at high tide, and picked up scallops and an occasional quahaug at low water.
"A dismal sort of book," I said, gloomily. "Well, I don't know. Here are you, the hero, and here's she, the heroine. And the hero is sick and the heroine comes to take care of him she WAS takin' care of you afore I came, you know; and she falls in love with him and " "Yes," I observed, sarcastically. "She always does in books. But in those books the hero is not a middle-aged quahaug.
"Satisfied with life?" "Seems to be." "Hum! No one calls HIM a what is it quahaug?" "No, I'm the only human clam in this neighborhood." He did not say any more, nor did I. My fit of the blues was on again and his silence on the subject in which I was interested, my work and my future, troubled me and made me more despondent.
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