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twg_000012924500 | came to view the wonders of the white man's village, and this favor being good-naturedly conceded, the prince, as our Englishmen called him, soon arrived with a fresh troop of followers, all of whom expected and received both meat, drink, and attention. But as the sun was setting Winslow appeared on the other side of the brook, and the savages | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924501 | were hastily dismissed, except Squanto and Samoset, both of whom insisted upon staying, not only for the night, but declared that they were ready to leave their own people and remain with the white men, whose way of life they so much approved, and to whom they could be of much use in many ways. Squanto in especial pleaded that | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924502 | this place was his own home, and that he had only left it for the village of the Nausets whence Hunt had stolen him, because all his people were dead of the plague, and he was afraid of their ghosts. His wigwam had once stood as he declared at the head of the King's Highway, and the Town Brook was | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924503 | his stewpond for the fish on which he mostly fed. Altogether it was quite evident that Squanto was rather the host than the guest of the Pilgrims, and as such they with grave jest and solemn fun consented to accept him. As for Samoset, he already had helped himself to the freedom of the town, and these two, with Hobomok, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924504 | the especial retainer of Standish, remained the faithful and useful friends of the white men until death divided them. . THE LAST LINK BROKEN. "Ho Jack! Where's thy master?" "In heaven, Master Jones, or mayhap thou meanest King James, who by last accounts was in London." "I crave thy pardon, worshipful Master Alden!" and the shipmaster bowed in ludicrous parody | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924505 | of reverence. "I would fain know where thy servant Carver, and thine other retainers, Winslow, and Standish, and Allerton, and the dominie may be." "'T is a large question, Master Jones, for I do not keep them in my pocket as a general thing, and they are just now about their own business. Might I ask thine?" "Were I not | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924506 | in such haste 't would be to cudgel some manners into thy big carcase, Master Insolent; but come now, prythee be a good lad and bring me to the governor, the captain, and the elder, for time and tide are pressing, and I would fain be gone." "In that direction our fancies pull together rarely, and if thou 'lt find | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924507 | a seat in the Common house I'll see if I can come upon the Fathers." With an inarticulate growl the master of the Mayflower did as he was bid, and by the time goodwife Billington had cleared and wiped the benches and table, the men he had requested to see, along with Winslow, Allerton, Bradford, and Doctor Fuller, came in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924508 | together, for the hour was just past noon, and the people collected for dinner had not yet dispersed. "Good-morrow, Captain Jones," said Carver courteously; "John Alden tells me thou wouldst have speech of all of us together." "Yes, Master Governor, and glad am I that peevish boy did my errand so largely, for what I have to say concerns every | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924509 | man, ay, and woman and child, in your settlement." "In truth! And what may it be, Master Jones? Sit you down, and goodwife Billington set on some beer for our guest." "Well thought on, and I'll not forget to send you another can or so before I sail." "Is the sailing day fixed as yet?" "To-morrow's flood will see me | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924510 | off, wind and weather permitting." "And God willing," sternly interposed the elder; but Jones fixing his twinkling eyes upon Brewster's face over the edge of the pewter pot covering the lower half of his face answered scoffingly as he set the flagon down,-- "If as you say God guides the wind and weather, reverend sir, fair weather speaks His willingness | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924511 | for me to sail, doth it not?" "Sith thy time is so short, Jones, mayhap thou 'lt spare it, and tell thine errand at once," interposed Standish sharply, and Jones turned upon him with a leer. "So cock-a-hoop still, my little Captain! Hard work and starving do not cool thy temper, do they? But hold, man, hold. 'T is indeed | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924512 | true that I am scant for time and mine errand is just this: Ye have been good friends and true to me when I was in need, with my men half down and half ready to mutiny, and your women have well-nigh brought me to believe in saints and angels and such like gear, and so I am come to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924513 | offer such of you as will take it, a free passage home, if the men will help to handle the ship and the women cook, and nurse such as may be ailing. Or if you choose to give up the emprize and load in your stuff and yourselves as ye were before, I'll take the stuff for passage money and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924514 | trust Master Carver's word for the rest." The Pilgrims paused on their reply, and man looked at man, each reading his own thought in the other's eyes. Then Carver spoke in grave deliberateness,-- "Brethren, ye have heard Master Jones's proffer, and I doubt not ye agree with me that it is kindly and generously spoken and meant. What say ye | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924515 | to it man by man? Elder Brewster?" "I say, Cursed be he who having put his hand to the plough turneth back." "And Master Allerton?" "I will abide the decision of the rest." "And Master Winslow?" "I and mine remain here." "And thou, Captain Standish?" "Our trumpeter has not been taught to sound the retreat." "And Bradford?" "I fain would | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924516 | stay here." "And thou, Doctor?" "I' faith I see better hope of practice here than in the old countries. I'll stay." "And I have come here to live and to die," said Carver in conclusion. "So you see good Master Jones, that while kindly grateful for your offer and your heartiness, we cannot accept the first, but will requite the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924517 | last with equal good will." "Ay, I want your good will, and perhaps you'll give me a prayer or two just for luck, dominie?" "Surely we will pray for thee, Master Jones," replied Brewster with fine reticence of tone. "But before we say more, brethren," resumed the governor, "we must not forget that, as the master hath said, this question | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924518 | concerns every man, woman, and child in the colony; and while we would not send unprotected women or children upon a long voyage with such a crew as man the Mayflower,"-- "Nay, they're not psalm singers," muttered Jones half exultant half ashamed, --"every man in the company has a right to decide for himself and those belonging to him," calmly | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924519 | concluded the governor, "and I will ask our captain, as equal in authority to myself, to bid the attendance of every man over twenty years old in the company, here at once." "It shall be done, Governor," replied Standish rising, and ten minutes later a dozen or so more of men comprising all that were left alive of the Pilgrim | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924520 | Fathers crowded into the Common house and stood attentive while Carver briefly but distinctly conveyed to them Master Jones's offer. "Ye understand, brethren," said he in conclusion, "that any one of you, or all of you are free to accept this offer without reproach. We seven men, to whom the message first was conveyed, have for ourselves refused it, but | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924521 | our will is not binding upon you or any of you. Master Hopkins, Master Warren, Cooke, Soule, Eaton, Howland, Alden, Gilbert Winslow, Browne, Dotey, and Lister, Billington, Goodman, Gardner, I call upon each of you to answer in turn, will you and those belonging to you return to England in the Mayflower, or will you abide here and trust in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924522 | God to sustain us in the undertaking we have entered upon in His name. Master Warren and Master Hopkins will you declare your wishes?" "I have no desire but to stay, and I have writ to my wife to come to me and bring our five daughters," said Warren without hesitation, and Hopkins gruffly added his sentence,-- "I am no | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924523 | idle maid with a yea-say and a nay-say. I am here with all belonging to me, and here I abide." And so in effect said every man there, each gently questioned by Carver, and each speaking his mind without fear or force, until at the end the governor turned to the grim old sea-dog who stood looking incredulously on, and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924524 | with a cheek tinged by honorable pride declared,-- "We thank you, friend, for your kindly invitation to take passage with you for our old home, but not one among us will give up the hope of our new home. Not one having set hand to the plough will turn back!" "Not one?" asked the master looking slowly around. "Not one," | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924525 | replied the elder exultantly; and like the breaking of a great wave upon the Rock a score of deep-throated voices echoed back the boast,-- "NOT ONE." The next morning broke clear and lovely, and with the sun rose a southwest wind, best of all winds for those who would extricate themselves from the somewhat tyrannous triple embrace of Plymouth Beach, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924526 | The Gurnet, and Manomet. Directly after breakfast the Pilgrims' pinnace went out manned by half the men of the colony, some carrying a last letter, some a little additional package of furs or curiosities for those at home, some only to say good-by and take a last look at the dingy quarters that had been their home for so many | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924527 | months. Captain Jones, hearty and hospitable in these last hours, had provided what he called a snack, and both beer and strong waters were freely set out upon the cabin table, nor did even the Elder refuse to do him right in a parting glass of Nantz. "Had I known you for such good fellows when first we joined company | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924528 | there had never been ill-will between us," said the master of the Mayflower. "But at least we will drown it now." "It is drowned deep as Pharaoh's host in the Red Sea," responded Myles heartily, and the elder cried Amen. An hour or so later, as the pinnace slowly beat back to her moorings, a group of women followed by | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924529 | some stragglers of the other sex climbed the hill and seated themselves about the Fort to watch the departure of the Mayflower. Priscilla and Mary Chilton as usual were close together, and Desire Minter seated herself beside them saying wearily,-- "Would I were a man!" "Thou a man my Desire!" exclaimed Priscilla turning upon her eyes sparkling with fun, although | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924530 | a suspicious red lingered around the lids. "Wouldst woo me for thy wife?" "Thou 'rt ever looking for every man to woo thee, but I'd have thee know there's one man, and his house not so far away, that's as near wooing me as thee." "Oh cruel, cruel Desire to wound my fond hopes so savagely," began Priscilla; but Mary | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924531 | ever more practical than humorous interrupted her,-- "Why dost want to be a man, Desire?" "Because we women were not asked would we accept Master Jones's hospitality and go home, and so I had no chance to say 'Ay and thank y' sir?'" "Would you have so said Desire?" asked Priscilla serious in a minute. "Why sure I would," replied | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924532 | the girl pettishly. "Why should any of us want to stay? There's plenty of hard work and plenty of prayers I grant you, and when you have said that you've said all. No decent housen, no butcher's meat, or milk, or garden stuff, or so much as a huckster's shop where one might cheapen a ribbon or a stay-lace--what is | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924533 | there here to live for?" "Naught for thee, my poor Desire, I'm afraid," said Priscilla almost tenderly. "And I wish thou couldst go home, but a maid may not venture herself alone." "I know she may not, and I tried to make my cousin Carver think as I do, that so she might persuade the Governor to go, but wow! | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924534 | at the first word she fell upon me with such a storm of words"-- "Sweet Mistress Carver storm!" cried the two girls derisively, and Priscilla added more gravely,-- "I can fancy what she tried to make thee feel, Desire; but thou couldst not feel it, and mayhap most young maids like us could not, but thou seest Mary and I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924535 | are different; our fathers and our mothers came hither with their lives in their hands to do a work, and we came to help them. Well, the lives were paid down and the work was not done, so we who remain, simple maids though we be, are in a manner bound to carry on that work, and not let them | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924536 | have died quite in vain. And their graves are here." Mary Chilton bowed her head upon her knees, and for a moment there was a great silence, then Desire said querulously,-- "Well, but what is there for me to do?" "Come home and help me cook the dinner!" cried Priscilla jumping to her feet, while practical Mary added, "And I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924537 | dare say some man will marry thee, Desire, and thou mayest have children." "I! I'll marry no man here--save one!" protested Desire tossing her head and rising more slowly. "Save one! Now is that happy he named John Howland?" asked a merry voice at her elbow, and Desire with a start and a laugh exclaimed,-- "Fie on thee, John, to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924538 | take a poor maid at her word so shortly." "Thou shouldst not shout thy resolves into a man's ear didst not thou want him to hear them," replied John carelessly, and forgot the idle words which were to bear an ill and unexpected crop for him at no distant date. . SOWED AND REAPED IN ONE DAY. "Bradford thou wast | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924539 | bred to the land wast not?" demanded Hopkins bursting into the house where William Bradford, ill and crippled with rheumatism in his "huckle-bone" or hip-joint, sat beside the fire reading an old Latin copy of the Georgics. "Bred to the land? Well, my forbears were husbandmen, and the uncle who cared for me as an orphan boy was a yeoman, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924540 | but as I had some estate and not very rugged health, they aye left me alone with my books in my young days. But why?" "Didst thou ever hear then, or didst thou ever read in thy books, of planting fish along with corn?" "Nay. Didst thou?" "That is what I am coming at. A lot of the men are | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924541 | talking with this Squanto about the place and time and manner of setting corn. Naturally the poor brute knoweth somewhat of the place and its customs, seeing that he hath always lived here, and still it irks me to see a salvage giving lessons to his white masters. He saith too that corn is to be planted when the oak | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924542 | leaves are as large as a mouse's ear. Such rotten rubbish!" "But doth he aver that his people were used to plant fish with the corn?" "Ay, and he went down to the brook yester even and set some manner of snare, and this morning hath taken a peck or so of little fish, for all the world like a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924543 | Dutch herring only bigger, and of these he says two must go into every hill of the corn, that is, this corn of theirs, for of wheat or rye or barley he knoweth nothing." "By way of enrichment, I suppose." "Ay, for in his gibberish he saith that corn hath been raised hereabout again and again, and now the land | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924544 | is hungry. Ha, ha, man, fancy the salvage calling the dead earth hungry, as if it were alive." "Our dear mother Earth dead, sayst thou!" exclaimed Bradford smiling dreamily and glancing at his Virgil. "Nay, man, she is the vigorous fecund mother of all outward life, and when she dieth, the end of all things hath come." "A pest on | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924545 | thy dreaming and thy bookish phantasies!" roared Hopkins kicking the smouldering log upon the hearth until a river of sparks flowed up and out of the wide chimney. "Dost thou agree to putting fish to decay amid the corn we are to eat by and by?" "We are not to live by what we plant, but by what we reap, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924546 | friend Hopkins," replied Bradford still smiling in the inscrutable fashion of a man who pursues his own train of thought far down beneath his surface conversation. "Dost thou agree to the herring?" roared Hopkins smiting the table with his brawny fist. "Why yes, Hopkins, if it needs that I give my sanction. It striketh my fancy that the man who | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924547 | hath raised and eaten his bread on this spot for some thirty years is like to know better how to do it than we who have just come. But what matter as to my opinion?" "Oh ay, I did not tell it as I should, but the governor sent me out of the field to ask thee, knowing that thou | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924548 | wast yeoman born." "Then I pray thee tell the Governor that in my poor mind it were well to follow the native customs in these matters at least for the first. I would that I could get a-field and do my share of the work." "Thou 'rt as well off here. 'T is woundy hot on that hill-side. I've known | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924549 | July cooler than this April." "And still my rheumatism hugs the fire," said Bradford taking up the tongs and readjusting the scattered logs, while bustling Dame Hopkins hung her dinner-pot upon the crane in the farthest corner, and began a clatter of tongue before which her husband fled apace. That night when the men came home from the field all | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924550 | spoke of the unusual and exhaustive heat of the weather, for it was now one of those periods of unseasonable sultriness which from time to time afflict our spring season, as on April , , when the wheat stood high enough above ground to bend before the breeze, and the British soldiers fell down beside the road, overcome by heat | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924551 | in their rapid flight from the "embattled farmers" of Concord and Lexington. But the next morning rose even sultrier and more debilitating, and Mistress Katharine Carver following her husband to the door laid a hand upon his shoulder saying,-- "Go not a-field to-day, John. It is even more cruelly hot than yesterday, and thou art overborne with toil already. Stay | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924552 | with me, I pray thee." "Nay, Kate, I were indeed unfit for the leader of the brethren could I send them forth to labor that I counted too heavy for myself. Let me go, sweetheart, and if thou wilt, say a prayer that I faint not by the way." "That will I truly, and yet"-- The rest died on her | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924553 | lips for he was gone, yet for a few minutes longer she stood watching the tall figure as it disappeared up the hill path and listening to the murmur of a spinning-wheel in Elder Brewster's house, fitfully accompanied by a blithe tune lilted now and again by the spinner. "Priscilla is early at her work," thought the dame. "I would | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924554 | I might sing and spin like that!" and with a little sigh she leaned her head against the door-post and closed her eyes; a sweet, pale face, colorless and pure as an Easter lily, and eyes whose blueness seemed to show through the weary lids with their deep golden fringe. A fair woman, a lovely woman, delicately bred, for her | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924555 | father was one of those English bishops whose authority her husband and his friends so resolutely denied, and both she and her sister, Pastor Robinson's wife, had "lain in the lilies and fed on the roses of life" until love led them to ardent sympathy with the Separatist movement, and they had wed with two of its most powerful leaders, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924556 | while their brother, Roger White, became one himself. "From heat to heat the day increased," and Katharine Carver lay faint and exhausted upon a settle drawn close beside the open door, when a strange sound of both assured and stumbling feet drew near, and as she started up it was to meet John Howland, half leading, half supporting her husband, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924557 | whose face, deeply flushed, lay upon the other's shoulder. "Be not over startled, dear lady!" exclaimed Howland. "The governor findeth himself a little overborne by the heat, and hath come"-- "John! Dear heart, what is it! Nay, try not to speak! Here, good John Howland, help me to lay him upon the bed--there then, dear one"-- "Fret not thyself, Kate, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924558 | 't is but a pain in my head--ah--'t is shrewd enough, but it will pass--there, there, good wife, fret not thyself!" "John Howland, wilt thou find Surgeon Fuller, and mayhap Dame Brewster, but no more. I will wring a napkin out of fair water and lay to his head, for it burneth like fire." "Ay, it burneth like fire," muttered | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924559 | the sick man wearily moving the poor head from side to side, and Katharine left alone dropped for one moment upon her knees and raised streaming eyes and clasped hands to Heaven, then rose, and when the Doctor and gentle Mary Brewster entered she stood white and calm at her husband's head. "Ay, ay, he hath sunstroke," muttered the surgeon, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924560 | laying a hand upon the patient's forehead, "and no wonder, for it is shrewdly hot to-day, and he toiling away like any Hodge of them all. I must let him blood. Canst get me a basin and a bandage, Mistress?" "I will fetch them, Katharine. Sit you down." And the Elder's wife slipped out of the door and back again | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924561 | before even impatient Doctor Fuller could wonder where she was. An hour later Carver arousing from the stupor that was growing upon him, asked to see William Bradford, who at once hobbled in from the neighboring house, although himself hardly able to sit up. "It grieves me to find thee in such evil case, brother," said he painfully seating himself | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924562 | beside the sick man's pillow. "Thy sorrows will last longer than mine, Will. I must set my house in order so far as I have time. Dost mind, Bradford, what I said to thee and Winslow and Standish, the time I saw ye standing upon the great rock in yon island before we landed in this place?" "Yes, dear friend, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924563 | I do remember." "Well, 't was borne in upon me then, that I was only to look upon the Promised Land, and then for my sins to die, and that thou wert the Joshua who should conquer our Canaan and make the people to dwell safely therein. Thou shalt be their governor, Bradford, and--their servant." "As thou hast ever been! | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924564 | Chief of all because the helper of all." "Send for Winslow and Standish and the elder. I cannot long command my senses, and fain would speak--nay, 't was but a passing pang. Send for them, and meanwhile call John Howland and Kate, my wife. I must hasten--hasten"-- Again the stupor crept over him, but steadily fighting it off, and holding | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924565 | his consciousness in the grasp of a strong man's will, he again opened his eyes as his wife, so pale, so still, so self-controlled, leaned over him and laid her cool fingers upon his brow. "Ay, sweetheart, 't is thy touch. I could tell it among a hundred. Dear, wilt thou go home to thy father's house? He'll have thee, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924566 | now thy poor 'Brownist' is gone. Or wilt thou go to thy sister Robinson? She will be fain to have thee." "'Whither thou goest I will go,' my husband." "Say you so, Dame? Ay, thou wast ever of a high heart, and a brave. Mayhap our Lord will be merciful to both of us,--but His will be done. Thou 'lt | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924567 | be submissive to thy God, Kate, as thou hast ever been to thy lord?" "Ay, dear, my lord, I will try to do thy bidding even thus far." "Ah, Kate, Kate, thou hast never failed in all our happy wedded life--fail not now--promise--promise"-- "Dear love, I promise to bow myself in all loving submission to whatsoever our God shall send." | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924568 | "Ay, that is right, that is well, that is mine own noble Kate. And Howland, I leave her to thy care--be a brother, a leal and true friend--thou knowest what that word means--I can no more--my senses reel"-- "It needs no more, dear master, dear friend, if I may call my master so"-- "My friend," murmured Carver. "Then I do | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924569 | pledge my word as a God-fearing man, that from this moment the first care, the chiefest duty of my life shall be to serve and shield and comfort my dear lady so far as God gives me power. I will be her servant, her brother, her friend, in all ways, and under all comings, and so help me God, as | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924570 | I shall keep this my promise." "Thou dost comfort my soul, even as it enters upon the valley of the shadow. Stand ye two aside and bring in my brethren." Howland quietly opened the door, and the three who had stood grouped against the golden sky on that December evening on Clarke's Island silently entered the room and stood around | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924571 | the bed, where in the awful hush that clings about the last hour their chief lay half unconscious and yet able to rally his energies for one more mighty effort. "Brethren, I go--God remaineth--His blessing be upon you, and all His Israel here.--Forgive my shortcomings--forgive if I have offended any, knowing or unknowing"-- "Thou hast ever been our best and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924572 | dearest earthly friend--pardon thou us, dear saint!" murmured Winslow. --"And if ye will follow my counsel, make William Bradford your Governor--and set aside all jealousy, all heart burning--Winslow dost promise?" "Ay, friend, I promise right heartily." "Standish?" "Ay, Governor." "Good-by--I can no more--Elder, say a prayer--yet cease before I die"-- And with a long, quivering sigh as of one who | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924573 | relinquishes his grasp of a burden too mighty for his strength, the first Governor of Plymouth Colony went to render an account of his stewardship. . FUNERAL--BAKED MEATS AND MARRIAGE FEASTS. "Methinks our governor should not be buried with as little ceremony as we perforce have showed our meanest servant," said Captain Standish gloomily to Elder Brewster the evening of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924574 | Carver's death. "You Separatists despise the ministering of the Church, but what have ye set in its place?" "We clothe not the coffins of the dead with the filthy rags of Popery, and we pray not for the souls of them whom God hath taken into His own hand, for that were of the sins of presumption against which David | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924575 | doth specially pray, but yet,"--and the Elder's face softened, "I am of your mind, Captain, that we should honor our chief magistrate in the last service we can render him, and although by his own wish I ceased to pray for him ere the last breath was sped, and will never again pray for him or any parted soul, I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924576 | well approve of such military honors as we are able to pay to his memory, and I will carry my musket with the rest, and fire it as you shall direct." "Why, that's more than ever I would have looked for, Elder," exclaimed Standish in amaze. "But since you so proffer, I gladly accept your aid and countenance, and by | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924577 | your leave, since as yet we have no governor in place of him who is gone, I will order the funeral by mine own ideas." "As a military man?" "Surely. I claim no spiritual powers," and with a curious expression of content and disapproval upon his face the captain went away to so arrange and order his plan, that at | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924578 | sunrise on the third day a guard of twelve men, including the elder, presented themselves at the house of mourning, and receiving the coffin upon the crossed barrels of their muskets carried it along the brow of the hill to the grave newly opened amid the springing wheat. Mistress Carver had made but one request, and that of piteous earnestness,-- | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924579 | "See that they make his grave where another may be dug close beside," pleaded she, and John Howland had seen that it was as she desired. Earth to earth was reverently and silently laid, the grave was covered in, and then, at the captain's signal, the twelve muskets were fired in relays of four, and their mournful echo mingled with | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924580 | the sobbing dirge of the waves breaking upon the Pilgrim Rock, while the dense column of smoke rising grandly to heaven was the only monument then or ever erected to John Carver, that willing martyr and gallant gentleman who had indeed "given his life for the brethren." Returning to the Common house the Guard of Honor joined with the rest | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924581 | of the townsmen in a Council, whereat they elected William Bradford to be their second Governor, and as he now lay ill in his bed, Isaac Allerton was chosen to be his Assistant and mouthpiece. Bradford, neither over elated nor daunted by his new dignities, accepted the nomination, and with few and brief intervals retained it until his own death | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924582 | some four-and-thirty years later, and nobly and faithfully did he perform its duties. About a week after Carver's funeral the new governor, now convalescent, received a visit from Edward Winslow, who sought him with the formal request that he as chief magistrate of the colony would perform the marriage ceremony between him and Susanna, widow of William White. For the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924583 | Separatists during their sojourn in Holland had accepted the creed of that nation of traders, and held with them that marriage is merely a civil contract, requiring a magistrate to secure the proper amount of goods to each party, and make sure that neither defrauded the other. As for the sacramental blessing of the Church, said the Dutchman and the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924584 | Separatist, it costs money and bestows none, and priests are ever dangerous associates, so we'll none of them or their craft. Apart from this view of the matter however, the civil authority was the only one available in this case, since Pastor Robinson had been detained in Leyden with the rest of his flock, and Elder Brewster had no authority | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924585 | except to preach. "It will be my first essay at such an office, Winslow, and I know not precisely how to go about it," replied Bradford smilingly when his friend had somewhat formally declared his errand. "But you were yourself wed that way," replied the bridegroom impatiently. "For me, my first wife held to her early teaching in that particular, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924586 | and would be married in a church and by a minister." "Yes, I was wed by a magistrate in Amsterdam," replied Bradford reluctantly; "but the old Dutchman did so mumble and mouth his words that I gathered not the sense of half. Likely it is, however, Master Carver hath left some Manual for such occasion. He was warned or ever | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924587 | he left England that he was like to be our Governor for longer than the voyage." "Doubtless, then, he had some such office-book. Shall I bid John Howland search for it?" asked Winslow. "Nay, the widow hath already sent me a box of papers and some little books, which she said should be the governor's. I have not yet searched | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924588 | them, but I will do so before I sleep. What day have you set for your wedding, Winslow?" "Why, we would not seem to fail in respect to our dear departed brother, and would leave a clear fortnight between his funeral and our wedding; so an' it please you we will set the marriage for Thursday of next week." "And | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924589 | at what hour?" "At even when all may rest from their labor it seemeth best. After supper we will be ready." "Wilt come to me or I to thee?" "The dame saith she would fain be wed in her new home. It is just finished to-day, and such gear as we have will be carried thither to-morrow." "I mind me | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924590 | that Mistress White hath a fair cradle of her own," suggested Bradford dryly. "Ay. Peregrine lieth in it now." "May it never stand idle. I will come to thy new house then on Thursday of next week, after supper." As Winslow departed, Desire Minter met him on the threshold, and with a hasty reverence asked,-- "Is the governor within, and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924591 | can I see him?" "Ay, lass, he is within, and I know not why thou shouldst not see him. Knock and enter." And Bradford still languid from his late illness raised his head from the back of his chair with a patient smile as the knock was immediately followed by Desire's broad and comely face. "Can your worship grant me | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924592 | a few moments if it please your honor?" "Nay, Desire, it needs not so much ceremony to speak to William Bradford. What wouldst thou?" "Well, worshipful sir, 't is a little advice. Your honor sees that I am a poor lonely lass, bereft now of even my cousin Carver's husband"-- "Nay, my girl, our late governor was more than 'even | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924593 | my cousin's husband.' Pay honor to him rather than to me." "Ay, but he is dead and cannot help me, and thou art alive." "'And better a live dog than a dead lion,'" murmured Bradford looking sorrowfully at the girl whose selfish cunning was not keen enough to disguise itself. "Well?" "Why, I fain would know your honor's judgment upon | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924594 | my marriage." "Thou marry! And who is the man?" "Why, there now is the question, sir? Captain Standish hath showed me that he fain would ask me to wife, did not Priscilla Molines woo him so desperately"-- "Peace, child! How dare one Christian woman speak thus of another!" "But 't is so, your worship; 't is so, indeed, and how | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924595 | can I gainsay it?" whimpered the girl. "She as good as asked him when we were sick together in the hospital, and she wrought upon her father to ask him, and what could he do between them, and still he would rather have had me to wife, and I would have not said him nay." "Well, and what can I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924596 | do about it?" "Bid Priscilla give him up, your honor, and bid him speak out to me, and quickly, for else John Howland will have me to wife." "Ah, and hath Howland also asked thee?" "Yes, your honor, he asked me as the Mayflower was sailing out of the harbor, and I told my cousin Carver, and she says it | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924597 | will be an ease to her mind to leave me with so good a man to my husband, but for me I had rather have the Captain." "And thou callest upon me to straighten this coil, and marry thee to whichever man will have thee, eh?" "Yes, your honor." "Thou 'rt a simple lass, and knowst not half thou sayest. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924598 | Go now, and I will send for thee in a day or two. But see thou keep a quiet tongue. Say not one word so much as to the rushes, or thou shalt have no husband at all. Mind that!" "Oh, I'll not speak, I'll not forget, trust me to do all your honor's bidding," cried the girl joyfully, and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012924599 | Bradford gazing at her in compassionate wonder rejoined,-- "Well, go now, and remember. Stay, send me one of the lads, no matter which. The first one thou seest." And when Giles Hopkins presently appeared he sent him to crave the presence of Captain Standish when he should have finished his noon-meat. The Captain came at once, and after a few | 60 | gutenberg |
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