noon
The suits hanging upon the line and distended by the wind presented the appearance of headless , bloated forms , fat men and fat women kicking in the breeze , and vainly trying to climb over the line . It was probably merely fancy , but they declared that these images seemed larger , more bloated , and much livelier than those displayed on the Cottage City side . When travelers can be entertained by trifles of this kind it shows that there is an absence of more serious amusement . And , indeed , although people were not wanting , and music was in the air , and the bicycle and tricycle stable was well patronized by men and women , and the noon bathing was well attended , it was evident that the life of Cottage City was not in full swing by the middle of July . The morning on which our tourists took the steamer for Wood 's Holl the sea lay shimmering in the heat , only stirred a little by the land breeze , and it needed all the invigoration of the short ocean voyage to brace them up for the intolerably hot and dusty ride in the cars through the sandy part of Massachusetts . So long as the train kept by the indented shore the route was fairly picturesque ; all along Buzzard Bay and Onset Bay and Monument Beach little cottages , gay with paint and fantastic saw-work explained , in a measure , the design of Providence in permitting this part of the world to be discovered ; but the sandy interior had to be reconciled to the deeper divine intention by a trial of patience and the cultivation of the heroic virtues evoked by a struggle for existence , of fitting men and women for a better country . The travelers were confirmed , however , in their theory of the effect of a sandy country upon the human figure .