It was fortunate indeed for us that Captain Standish was among those
able to labor for others, else had we come much nearer dying by
starvation. A famous hunter is the captain, and one day, when I was
searching for leaves of the checkerberry plant under the snow, mother
having said the chewing of them might save me from feeling so hungry,
Captain Standish dropped a huge wild turkey in front of me.
It seemed like a gift from God, and although it was very heavy, I
dragged it home, forgetting everything except that at last we should
have something to eat.
Many days afterward I heard that the captain went supperless to bed
that day, and when I charged him with having given to me what he needed
for himself, he laughed heartily, as if it were a rare joke, saying
that old soldiers like himself had long since learned how to buckle
their belts more tightly, thus causing it to seem as if their stomachs
were full.
[Illustration]
A firm friend is Captain Standish, and God was good in that he was sent
with us on the _Mayflower_.
It was when our troubles were heaviest, that Sarah came to my home
because her mother was taken sick, and Mistress Bradford, who went
there to do what she might as nurse, told Sarah to stay in some other
house for a time.