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twg_000012925000 | friends. Thou wouldst never flout an honest fellow's love and draw him on, and turn him back, and use him worse than a baby doth its puppet. The man who loves thee will never rue it." So meaning were his glances and his tone, that for a moment the simple maid stood aghast. Could it be that Alden's constancy had | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925001 | given out, and he was now ready to woo her instead of her friend; but in another moment the truth dawned upon her, and with more diplomacy than she often showed Mary smiled and shook her head. "I know not, for love and sweethearts have not come my way yet. 'T is Priscilla whom all men seek, and she in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925002 | merry mood listeth to all and still keepeth her own mind secret. She is well content to-night, for this lad hath brought news of his brother's marriage." "What, the fellow they call Jacques?" demanded John glancing eagerly toward the other couple now walking some paces in advance. "Ay, and Guillaume is betrothed, and Jeanne. They are dear friends of our | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925003 | Priscilla." "But--but--nay, then, maid Mary, have compassion on a poor stupid oaf who is no match for her or you or any woman in subtlety and fence, and yet loveth yon maid as it is not well for man to love aught but his Maker. Tell me, doth she care aught for me?" "Nay, John, that is a question none | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925004 | but she should answer, but yet I may tell thee thus much. The news she hath to-day may embolden thee to ask again." "Good wench, true friend!" exclaimed Alden, his whole face lighting with a new hope. "And now as we turn toward home, if thou wouldst but engage yon boy's attention, and let me essay while hope is strong | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925005 | and courage fresh, I will put my fate once more to the touch and know if joy and I are henceforth partners, or the coldest of strangers." "Ah, lad, thou lovest her overmuch," replied Mary, letting her placid blue eyes rest upon him half curiously, half enviously. "No man will ever care for me like that, for I have not | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925006 | the skill to hide my mind as Priscilla hath. But I'll help thee, John, for I do believe thou 'lt make the dear maid happy if she will but stay in one mind long enough to wed thee." And in a few moments when the setting sun warned Priscilla that it was time to turn homeward, and the two parties | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925007 | came together, Mary showed Philip De la Noye the strawberry plants of which he had asked, and so detained him for a moment, while John walking on with Priscilla impatiently began,-- "Wilt answer me one little question in good faith, mistress?" "In good faith if at all, John." "Then, what bond is there betwixt thee and this lad's brother Jacques?" | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925008 | "None save good will and old acquaintance." "But there was." "Was there?" "Nay now, Priscilla, I speak to thee in sober sadness, and I ask such reply as honest maid should give to honest man who woos her for his wife. If we fall to quips and cranks and wordy play, thou 'rt so far out of my reach that | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925009 | I know not if I ever come near thee, for I'm but a plain simple fellow, Priscilla, and I love thee more than I love aught else but God and the truth. Give me now a plain answer and have pity of my misery. Has aught of this lad's news changed thy will or thy intent toward me?" And Priscilla | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925010 | moving slowly along beside her wooer shot a rapid sidelong glance at his white face, and for the first time in their acquaintance felt a thrill of respect akin to fear, sweep in his direction across her gay self-assertive nature. "Yes, John, I will answer thee truly and soberly," replied she in a voice he had never heard from her | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925011 | before. "Philip De la Noye hath brought news that sets me free from a teasing obligation of which no man knows. Marie and Jeanne, his sisters, are my dear friends and gossips, and their brother Jacques would fain have been my bachelor in Leyden, but I was too young my father said to listen to such talk, and he cared | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925012 | not greatly for Jacques, who was to tell truth somewhat gay and debonair of temper, and no church member, no, not he. So when we parted from Leyden to come hither, and I went to bid good-by to my friends, James, as you call him in English, would fain have me promise to wed no man but him, and he | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925013 | would come hither so soon as he was his own master." "And didst promise, Priscilla?" "Well, nay and yea, John. I said I knew not what might meet me here, and--but at long and at last I promised to wait until the first ship had followed us, and if Jacques came in her I would--would listen to him again." "And | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925014 | that was all thy promise, maiden?" "Ay, and enough, for before we landed on yonder Rock, and 't was Mary Chilton and not thee, John, who first skipt ashore"-- "Oh, mind not that just now, Priscilla." "Well, before I myself came ashore I knew that I cared not for Jacques De la Noye. Beside the deathbed of my mother, and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925015 | again by that of my brother, I knew that life was darker and deeper than he could fathom." "Ay, maid, and nobly didst thou bear that sorry load of woe and care." Priscilla's color rose, and her dark eyes flashed a message of thanks, but without other reply she went steadily on,-- "And so soon as Philip saw me, he | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925016 | delivered himself of the news that Jacques, some three months since, was wed at Saint Peter's Church to Gertrude Bartholmei, a merry Flemish maid, who ever looked kindly on him, and now is welcome to him." "Say you that honestly, Priscilla?" "As honestly as thyself could speak, lad." "And thou 'rt heart-whole?" "Nay, I said not exactly that." "What! Dost | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925017 | really care for the captain?" "As I care for the governor and the doctor; no more, no less." "Priscilla, wilt be my wife?" "Nay then, John, why didst not ask that at first rather than at last? Thou 'rt too fond of quip and quirk and wordy warfare, John, too much given to fence and intrigue." "I, Priscilla! Nay then, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925018 | I'll not be turned aside again, try as thou wilt. Priscilla, wilt be my wife?" "Nay then, I never could bear a cuckoo song all on two notes, and if thou 'rt bound to say that phrase over and over till 't is answered"-- "'T is just what I am bound to do. Priscilla, wilt be my wife?" "Yes, John, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925019 | I will, and now I hope thou 'rt content." "Wait till I see thee alone this evening, and I'll tell thee how content. Oh, maiden"-- "I will wait in what patience I may until that threatened evening hour," interrupted Priscilla as restively as the young colt who, after long coquetting, at last feels the bridle slipped over his head. "Mary, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925020 | an' thou hasten not there'll be little done toward supper at supper time. Desire is naught and less than naught now that she's going home, and Bessy Tilley thinketh only of John Howland, and the dear mother hath her son, so who is left but thee and me to do a hand's turn." "Here am I, Priscilla, and I'll help | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925021 | thee in any way thou 'lt say," suggested John Alden a little presuming upon his recent acceptance, and for his pains receiving a snub that made him wince again, for Priscilla coldly replied,-- "They say they came nigh bringing a Jack in the Fortune, but had no room for him; so thou mayst take his place, and fetch me a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925022 | bucket of water from the spring. There's no mighty difference betwixt Jack and John." . KEEPING CHRISTMAS. And now began a new epoch in the life of the colony. The passengers of the Fortune, thirty-five in number, although nominally of the same belief and manners as the Mayflower Pilgrims, were in effect a new element which, in spite of the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925023 | generous efforts of the new-comers, did not readily assimilate with the sober and restrained tone natural to men who had suffered and struggled and conquered at such terrible loss to themselves, as had the first comers. A score of gay young fellows upon whom life sat so lightly that they cared not how they periled it, was no doubt a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925024 | valuable acquisition to the fighting force of the colony, and almost upon the day of their arrival the Captain enrolled, divided, and began to train them, forming four companies of twelve men each, for some of the larger boys of the Mayflower were now enlisted, and this force of fifty men was at least once in every week led over | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925025 | to the Training Green across the brook, and there inspected, manoeuvred, marched and counter-marched, disciplined in prompt obedience and rapid movement; until the birds of the air who watched from the neighboring forest should have carried a warning to their co-aborigines, the Narragansetts, the Neponsets, the Namaskets, and the Manomets, not yet convinced, spite of the late warning, that the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925026 | white man was their Fate against which it was but bitter defeat to struggle. The training over, each company in turn escorted the captain to his own quarters, and fired a salute of honor as he dismissed them. "'T is not for mine own glory, Will, as thou who knowest me will believe," said Standish, while the governor and he | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925027 | smoking a placid pipe on the evening of the first training, discussed the events of the day. "But in matters military even more than civil, it needs that one man should be at the head, and command the respectful observance as well as the obedience of those under his command. It is not Myles Standish whom the soldiers of Plymouth | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925028 | salute as he enters this poor hut, but the Captain of the Colony's forces." "Ay, ay, Myles, I know thy humility," replied Bradford with his smile of gentle subtlety. The captain shot an inquiring glance out of his red-brown eyes, and in turn laughed a little uncomfortably. "Nay now, thou 'rt laughing at me, Will. I claim no great meed | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925029 | of humility to be sure, and yet thou knowest lad, that if I could serve this emprise better by carrying a musket in the ranks"-- "Nay now, old friend, may not I smile at some jest between myself and my pipe, but thou must tack more meaning to it than Brewster says hung on Lord Burleigh's nod? And yet in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925030 | sober sadness, Myles, 't is marvel to me how thou, born to a great name and to such observance as awaits the children of wealthy houses, and then, when hardly more than a boy, placed in authority such as appertaineth to an English army officer in time of war, how thou hast failed to become more arrogant and peremptory than | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925031 | thou art. And as for a musket in the ranks, what were that to such offices as not yet a year agone I saw thee fill around the beds of the sick and dying in our first great plague? When had we a tenderer nurse, a more patient watcher? What office was too loathly for thee, what tendence too tiring?"-- | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925032 | "Will, an' thou holdst not thy tongue I'll leave thee to thyself." "Thou 'lt never be so rude in thine own house, Myles. Such manners would ill befit a Standish of Standish." "Come now, Governor, do you disapprove of the salute, or of any other of my military ordonnances?" "I disapprove of naught, old comrade, but of a certain want | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925033 | of patience beneath a friend's jest which I have sometimes marked, and haply it is I who am at fault to try thee so; but Myles, there's enow to make the governor of this colony sorry and sober, and thou shouldst not grudge him a moment of merriment even at thine own cost." "Nor do I, as well thou knowest, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925034 | Will. 'T is only that I am as ever a hot-headed fool and ill deserve a friend like thee. And now what thinkst thou of Master Cushman's errand, and the chidings of those London traders that we sent them not a cargo by the Mayflower? We who had much ado to dig the graves of half our company and to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925035 | find food for the rest, to be rated like laggard servants because we laded not that old hulk with merchandise for their benefit." "Ay, Master Weston's letter was somewhat hard to bear, albeit we should excuse much to his ignorance of our surroundings," said Bradford placably, although the color rose to his cheek at thought of the injustice he and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925036 | his friends had suffered. "I have writ a reply," continued he, laying down his pipe and drawing a roll of paper from the pocket of his leathern jerkin, "and am fain to have your mind upon it, for I would not be over bitter, and yet was shrewdly wounded that John Carver lying in his honored grave should be so | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925037 | rudely attacked. Shall I read it?" "Ay, an' thou wilt, though I'm more than half in mind to take passage by the Fortune, and give Master Weston and the rest a reply after mine own fashion." "What, and leave the train band to its own destruction! But here you have my poor script:-- "To the worshipful Master Thos: Weston: "Sir,--Your | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925038 | large letter written to Mr. Carver and dated the 16th of July I have received the 20th of Nov'br, wherein you lay many heavy imputations upon him and us all. Touching him he is departed this life, and now is at rest in the Lord from all those troubles and incumbrances with which we are yet to strive. He needs | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925039 | not my apology; for his care and pains were so great for the common good both ours and yours, as that therewith it is thought, he oppressed himself and shortened his days of whose loss we cannot sufficiently complain. At great charges in this Adventure I confess you have been, and many losses you may sustain; but the loss of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925040 | his and many other honest and industrious mens lives cannot be valued at any price. Of the one there may be hope of recovery, but the other no recompence can make good." "Oh, you're too mild, Bradford," burst out the captain as the reader paused and looked up for approval. "You should bombard him with red-hot shot, hurl a flight | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925041 | of grape, a volley of canister into his midst--nay then, but I'll go myself and with a blow of my gauntlet across Master Weston's ears"-- "Captain--Captain Standish! Master Warren hath sent me to warn your worship that some of the new-comers are building a bonfire in the Town Square, and sprinkling the pile with powder"-- "There, Myles, thou seest how | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925042 | well we can spare thee! Wouldst leave me at the mercy of these rough companions who"-- But already the captain armed with a stout stick was half way down the hill, and, smiling quaintly to himself Bradford relighted his pipe and went home to finish his letter. A week later the Fortune sailed on her return voyage carrying Cushman, who | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925043 | left his son Thomas under Bradford's care until he should come again, not knowing that his next voyage should be across the shoreless sea whence no bark hath yet returned. Under his charge traveled Desire Minter, loudly proclaiming her joy at returning to regions "where a body might at least look for decent victual," and Humility Cooper, Elizabeth Tilley's little | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925044 | cousin. The two seamen, Trevor and Ely, also returned, their year of service having expired; but in spite of the dearth of provision, already imminent owing to the unprovided condition of the new-comers, not one of the Pilgrims embraced this opportunity of escape. Besides her passengers, the Fortune carried valuable freight consigned to Weston as agent of the Adventurers. The | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925045 | best room was given to sassafras root, of which the colonists had gathered great store, and with much rejoicing, for being just then the panacea of both French and English physicians, it was worth something like forty dollars of our present money per pound. Besides the sassafras were several hogsheads of beaver skins, also very valuable at that time, and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925046 | the rest of the hold was filled with clapboards and other finished lumber, the whole cargo worth at least twenty-five hundred dollars. The most precious thing on board that little vessel however, if we except human life, was a manuscript journal written by William Bradford and Edward Winslow, and sent home to their friend George Morton in London, who, finding | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925047 | it too good to be kept to himself, had it printed the very same year by "John Bellamy at his shop at the Two Greyhounds, near the Royal Exchange, London," and as he did not give the names of its authors, nor bestow any distinctive title upon it, it came to be called "Mourt's Relation," and was the first book | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925048 | ever printed about that insignificant knot of emigrants in whom we now glory as the Forefathers of New England. But alas for human hopes, alas for the honest rejoicings of the Pilgrims in their goodly cargo, just before the Fortune sighted the English coast she was captured by a French cruiser and carried into Isle Dieu. Two weeks later the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925049 | vessel, crew, and passengers were released, but the sassafras, the beaver skins, and the lumber went to heal and warm and house Frenchmen instead of Englishmen, and Thomas Weston's pockets still cried out with their emptiness. Happily for the world, however, the Frenchmen did not appreciate the "Relation," and it went peacefully on in Robert Cushman's mails, and reached good | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925050 | George Morton's hands. About a week after the sailing of the Fortune came Christmas Day, and Bradford doing on his clothing for a good day at lumbering allowed himself a half regretful memory of the sports and revelings with which he and the other youth of Austerfield had been wont to observe the Feast; but presently remembering his new beliefs, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925051 | the Separatist leader murmured something about "rags of Popery," and went down to his breakfast. "Call the men together, Howland," ordered he in some displeasure as leaving his house axe in hand he found only his older comrades awaiting him. "Where are the new-comers? I see none of them." "An' it please you, Governor, Hicks and the rest of them | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925052 | say it goeth against their conscience to work on Christmas Day," reported Howland with a grim smile. For a moment Bradford frowned, but as he caught the gay glint of Standish's eyes his own softened, and after a brief pause he answered temperately,-- "We will force no man's conscience. Tell Robert Hicks and the rest that I excuse them until | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925053 | they be better informed." At noon the wood-choppers returned to the village weary and hungry, for already had the entire company been placed upon half rations of food, so to continue until another cargo should arrive, or the next year's crop be ripe. Well for their endurance that they could not foresee that no farther cargo of provisions should ever | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925054 | arrive for them, from those who had undertaken to support them, and that the next year's crop should prove a failure. But now as they wearily toiled up the hill from the brookside, eager for the hour of rest and the scanty meal they were learning to value so highly, sounds of loud revelry and boisterous mirth fell upon their | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925055 | ears, sounds alien to their mood, their necessities, and on this day to their principles. "Those runagates are holding Christmas revels in spite of you, Governor," remarked Standish half jeeringly; while Hopkins, whose humor just now was not far removed from mutiny, muttered that if godless men were to play, he saw not why good Christians should be forced to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925056 | work, call it Christmas Day or any other. "You are right, Hopkins, although somewhat discourteous in your rectitude," replied Bradford, and hasting forward he came in sight of the Town Square, where some fifteen or twenty of the Fortune passengers were amusing themselves at "stool-ball," a kind of cricket, at pitching the bar, wrestling, hopping-matches, and various other old English | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925057 | sports, many of which had been encouraged and even led by the governor in the late week of Thanksgiving. But now advancing into the midst, his air of serene authority as much as his uplifted hand imposing silence upon the merry rebels, who dropped their various implements, and tried in vain to appear at ease, Bradford looking from one to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925058 | another quietly said,-- "I told you this morning that if you made the keeping of Christmas Day matter of conscience, I should leave you alone until you were better informed; now, however, I warn you that it goeth against my conscience as governor of this colony to let idle men play while others work, and if indeed you find matter | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925059 | of devotion in the day ye shall keep it quietly and soberly in your housen. There shall be neither reveling nor gaming in the streets, and that I promise you. Let whosoever owneth these toys take them away and store them out of sight; and remember, men, that the Apostle saith, 'If a man will not work neither shall he | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925060 | eat.'" Silently and shamefacedly the revelers collected bats and balls, cricket stools, bars, poles, and iron weights, carrying them each man to his own house, and in the afternoon the chopping party was augmented by nearly every one of the new-comers. . A SOLDIER'S INSTINCT. A year and more from that Christmas Day has sped, and again we find Bradford | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925061 | and Standish with Winslow gathered together at the governor's house, resting after the labors of the day, smoking the consoling pipe, and even tasting from time to time the contents of a square case bottle, which, with a jug of hot water and a basin of sugar were set forth upon a curious little clawfooted table worth to-day its weight | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925062 | in gold if only it could have survived. None of the three look younger than they did when they first stepped upon the Rock; sun and wind, and winter storm and summer heat have bronzed their English complexions and deepened the lines about the quiet steadfast lips and anxious eyes. Already Bradford's shoulders were a little bowed, partly by the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925063 | burden of his responsibility, partly by arduous manual labor, but upon his face had grown the serenity and somewhat of the impassiveness into which the Egyptians loved to mould the features of their kings,--that expression which of all others belongs to a man who uses great power firmly and decisively, and yet looks upon himself as but a steward, who | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925064 | soon or late shall be called to render a strict account of his stewardship. And Winslow, courtly, learned, and fit for lofty emprise, how bore he this life of toil and privation, this constant contention with such foes as famine, and disease, and squalor, and uncouth savagery? Look at the portrait painted of him in London some years later, and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925065 | see if there is not an infinite weariness, a brooding _Cui bono?_ set as a seal upon those haughty features. Can one after studying that face much wonder that when the Massachusetts Bay authorities in besought Plymouth to spare their sometime governor, their wise and astute statesman, to arrange the Bay's quarrel with the Home government, Winslow eagerly accepted the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925066 | mission, although as Bradford sadly records, his going was--"much to the weakening of this government, without whose consent he took these employments upon him." So well, however, did he fill the larger sphere for which his ambitious nature perhaps had secretly pined, that after four years of arduous service when the Massachusetts quarrel was well adjusted, and Winslow would have | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925067 | returned home, President Steele, whom he had helped to found the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, wrote to the Colonial Commissioners in New England that although Winslow was unwilling to be kept longer from his family, he could not yet be spared, because his great acquaintance and influence with members of Parliament made him invaluable to the work | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925068 | in hand. Then in the Protector, Oliver Cromwell, placed him at the head of a committee for settling a Dutch quarrel; and in the same power named him governor of Hispaniola, and dispatched him thither with a fleet and body of soldiers to conquer and take possession of his new territory. But General Venable in command of the soldiers, and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925069 | Admiral Penn in command of the fleet, fell to loggerheads as to which was the other's superior, and even Winslow's diplomacy could not heal the breach; so the attack upon Hispaniola proved a disgraceful failure, and as the fleet sailed away to attack Jamaica, the Great Commissioner, as they called him fell ill of chagrin and worry, and after a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925070 | few days of wild delirium wherein he stood upon Burying Hill, and drank of the Pilgrims' Spring, and spoke loving words to the wife and children he should see no more, he died, and was committed to the great deep with a salute of two-and-forty guns, and never a kiss or tear, for all who loved him were far away. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925071 | But all this honor, all this disaster, lies in the future, for as yet Winslow is only seven-and-twenty, and yet the lines of ambition, of weariness, of hauteur are foreshadowed upon his face; already Time with his light indelible pencil has faintly traced the furrows he by and by will plow that all who run may read. Perhaps the least | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925072 | change of all is that upon the captain's face, for before ever he landed on the Rock full twenty years of a soldier's life had set those firm lips, and steadied those marvelous eyes, and impressed upon every line of the deep bronzed face the air of the vigilant commander who was both born and bred for the post he | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925073 | fills so thoroughly. If any change, perhaps there is a softening one, for those keen eyes have looked so often upon misery and need, and so little upon bloodshed in these three last years, that they have gained somewhat of tenderness, somewhat of human sympathy; and the look that dying men and women have strained their glazing eyes to see | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925074 | to the last, is not so far from the surface as once it was. But the governor is speaking,-- "Yes, my friends, I will confess to feeling more than a little uneasy over the matter. This party whom our sometime friend Weston hath sent over to settle at our very doors as it were, and to steal our trade with | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925075 | the Indians, and so hold us from paying off our debt to the Adventurers"-- "With whom he was still to abide as our Advocate," growled Standish. "Ay. He hath doubtless served us a sorry turn by not only dividing himself from the Adventurers, but setting up a rival trading-post of his own," remarked Winslow. "And worse than that is this | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925076 | news Squanto brings in to-day," resumed the governor. "I mean the dealings of those new-comers with the Indians." "Yes, they carry themselves like both knaves and fools, and will presently find their own necks in the noose," said Standish rapping the ashes out of his pipe with such force as to break it. "But worse again than that," suggested Winslow | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925077 | quietly, "is the danger they bring upon us. Hobomok warneth me that there is a wide discontent growing among the red men, springing from the conduct of these men at Weymouth as they call it. The Neponsets have suffered robbery, and insult, and outrage at their hands, and both the Massachusetts on the one hand and the Pokanokets on the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925078 | other are in sympathy with them. Then you will see, brethren, that Canonicus with his Narragansetts, who already hath sent us his cartel of defiance, will make brief alliance with Massasoit, and all will combine to drive every white man from the country. There is hardly any bound to the mischief these roysterers at Weymouth have set on foot." "And | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925079 | Massasoit no longer our friend, since we refused to send him poor Squanto's head," said Bradford meditatively. "Yes," laughed the captain. "'T is food for mirth, were a man dying, to see Squanto skulk at our heels like a dog who sees a lion in the path. He hardly dares step outside the palisado, for fear some envoy of Massasoit's | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925080 | shall pounce upon him." "'T is a good lesson to teach him discretion," said Winslow. "Certes he stirred up strife between us and the sachem with his cock-and-bull stories." "Especially when he sent his squaw to warn us that Canonicus with Massasoit and Corbitant were on the way from Namasket to devour us." "Ay, no wonder Massasoit was aggrieved at | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925081 | being so slandered, and could he have got Tisquantum once within his clutches 't would have gone hard with the poor fool. But never burnt child dreaded fire as he now doth the outside of the palisado." "Didst hear, Winslow, that t' other day when some of us were unearthing a keg of powder buried there in the Fort, Squanto | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925082 | and a savage guest of his clomb the hill to see what was going on? The magazine is passably deep as you know, and Squanto himself had never seen it opened; so when they saw Alden hand up the keg to Hopkins, the guest asked in the Indian tongue what was in it, and Squanto told him 't was the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925083 | plague which just before our coming swept the land, and that the white men had captured it and buried it here upon the hill to let loose upon their enemies; and in the end the knave got a goodly price from his visitor for assurance that the plague should not be liberated till he had time to reach Sandwich." All | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925084 | three men laughed, but Bradford said,--"I fear me Squanto hath done us no little harm with his double dealings, his jealousy of Hobomok, and his craving for bribes; but withal he hath been so good a friend to us, more than useful at the first when we knew naught of the place or how to live, or plant, or fish, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925085 | that I thought right to risk even Massasoit's enmity rather than to give our poor knave up to his wrath." "And then I never can forget," said Winslow, "that Squanto as only survivor of the Patuxets was in some sort lord of the soil whereon we pitched." "Yes truly," responded the captain with a short laugh. "Like myself he was | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925086 | born to great estates and sees them enjoyed by others." "Well then, since nothing is imminent in this matter of the Weymouth colonists and their quarrel with the Indians, we had better, now that the palisado around the town is complete"-- "Gates, bolts, bastions, all complete from the great rock around to the brook," interposed Standish, his figure visibly dilating | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925087 | with satisfaction. Bradford smiled and allowed his eyes to rest affectionately for an instant upon his comrade, then continued in a lighter tone,-- "So having fortified your hold, Captain, it is now fitting that you should provision it. Thou knowest how in my journeyings last month I bought and stored corn at Nauset, and Manomet, and Barnstable, and now that | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925088 | we have a moment's breathing space, it were well that some one should take the pinnace and fetch it. At the same time there will be good occasion to feel the pulse of the various chiefs, and determine what is their intended course and so settle our own." "Nay, Winslow is the man for that work, Governor," replied the captain | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925089 | bluntly. "I will go and get the corn, and if need be teach the savages a lesson upon the dangers of plotting and conniving, but as to talking smoothly with men who are lying to me"-- "But why prejudge them, Captain," began Winslow, when with a tap upon the door Squanto himself appeared ushering in a strange Indian whom he | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925090 | fluently presented as a friend of his who had come with great news. Bidden to deliver it, the stranger stated that a great Dutch ship had gone ashore at Sowams (Bristol), and would be wrecked unless help could be had, and this could not be given by the Indians, for Massasoit lay dying and no one would stir without his | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925091 | command. This news changed the aspect of affairs, and Winslow was at once appointed to pay Massasoit a visit of inquiry, and in case of his death to make an alliance if possible with Corbitant, his probable successor as sachem of the Pokanokets. He also was to see the commander of the Dutch vessel, and in case of a wreck | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925092 | to offer the hospitality of Plymouth to the sufferers, for in case of the famine narrowly impending over the colony, the friendship and aid of the Dutch might become of the last importance. Besides this, the dangerous Narragansetts were known to have made alliance with the Dutch, and might by them be deterred from molesting the Plymouth settlers if they | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925093 | were known to be their friends. "And so, Myles," declared Bradford finding himself alone with his friend at the end of the informal council, "thou must e'en go by thyself for the corn, with what men thou dost call for, and I doubt not we shall find thee burgeon into a diplomatist equal at least to the great Cecil or | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925094 | to Sir Walter Raleigh"-- "Ay, and that minds me," interrupted Standish "of the news sent us by good Master Huddlestone of the Betsey, how the Virginia savages had massacred three hundred and forty-seven of Raleigh's settlers, and would have made an end of them but for warning given by a friendly Indian." "Ay, it was heavy news, and a timely | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925095 | warning," said the governor losing his air of gayety and sighing deeply. "And if indeed Weston's men have angered the Neponsets to the pitch we fear, the news of this Virginia success will embolden them to undertake the same revenge. Be wary, Standish, and very gentle in thy dealings. If war is determined, let it be entered upon deliberately and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925096 | formally; take not the matter into thine own hands and mayhap lose us our commander just at the onset." "Ay Will, 'I'll roar thee gently' as any sucking dove, an' there seemeth need to roar at all." "Best not roar at all until all thy comrades may join in unison," and once more Bradford's face lighted with its peculiar smile, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925097 | the sort of smile one might bestow upon his double should he meet him and address him with a jest unknown to any other. And so it came to pass that the next morning's rising sun saw two important expeditions leaving the hamlet in opposite directions. Toward the dark and almost pathless woods at the North marched Winslow accompanied by | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925098 | Master John Hampden, then visiting the colony and studying the science of republican government in its most perfect, because most simple, development. With them went Hobomok as guide and interpreter, and after them went the tearful prayers of Susanna Winslow, who loved her new lord better than she had the father of baby Peregrine toddling at her side, as she | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012925099 | stood in the cabin door to gaze after the little group already almost out of sight, and making now for the "Massachusetts trail" where it crosses Jones's River in Kingston. And as one driving over that pleasant road which now intersects the old trail pauses to look up its green ascent, or on across the placid stream it forded, does | 60 | gutenberg |
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