The Sound and the Frilly

Well, that's the vacation book William Faulkner might have written if he'd spent his time swimming in the Nantucket Sound and beachcombing for frilly shells instead of stoking a university furnace on the third shift.

This morning was spent not in the Sound, though, but on Madaket Beach, where the waves crash, and sweep one up before hurtling them to shore and dumping them out in a furious froth.  And if that sentence was written in the passive, I guess it mirrors my state as I was rocked and rolled in the relentless surf, to my happy exhaustion.

This afternoon I may just contemplate the similarities and differences between the nationally beloved Miss Rumphius . . .

and Madaket Millie, a true Nantucket beach read, original illustrations of which are prettily on display at the Atheneum Children's Library.