THE CLAMMER
THE CLAMMER
BY
WILLIAM JOHN HOPKINS
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & COMPANY
The Riverside Press, Cambridge
1906
COPYRIGHT 1906 BY WILLIAM JOHN HOPKINS
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published March, 1906
CONTENTS
| I | |
|---|---|
| The Clammer | 1 |
| II | |
| A Daughter of the Rich | 83 |
| III | |
| Old Goodwin’s Wife | 177 |
I
THE CLAMMER
[2]
THE CLAMMER
MANY of my friends—and probablyall my neighbors—thinkme erratic and peculiar, I do notdoubt. My friends remonstrate withme mildly, and I usually listen andaccept and make no reply. For howcan they know? And, they beingwhat they are, how can I help themto a knowledge of things which mustbe born in a man? My neighbors donot remonstrate, for my neighbors arenot of necessity my friends, and I amqueer enough not to care to cultivatea man’s acquaintance merely becausehe lives next me.
There is Goodwin the Rich, whohas the palace on the hill, above my[4]favorite clam beds. It is not likely thatI shall ever know him, although hisautomobiles flash past my front gate,covering my hedge with dust, and envelopingmy house in nauseous smells.I do not like automobiles. It is notto be imagined that Goodwin finds mepeculiar, for he is probably unaware ofmy existence; but I have some humblerneighbors who stare at me andshake their heads. And I smile andpass on; for I know what I know,and it passeth their understanding.And all this shaking of heads, and allthe protesting of my friends, is becauseI choose to go clamming.
Some of my friends may, at first,have had the idea that my interest inclams was biological; for I receivedsome training in that branch of science,and even taught it—or was supposed[5]to teach it, with other branches—ina school. But I look back uponthat school with horror, as, no doubt,my victims regard me, in retrospect.And my neighbors may, very naturally,have assum