I must tell you that there is being made a stout fort where we can all
go in case any wicked savages should come against us, and when that has
been finished, we shall have a real meeting-house, for one is to be put
up inside the walls.
Mother says she is certain Mistress Brewster will be relieved, for now
we meet each Sabbath Day at her home. It must be a real hardship for
her when Elder Brewster preaches an unusually long sermon, for many
a time have the pine knots been lighted before he had come to an end,
and, of course, the evening meal could not be cooked until we who had
come to meeting had gone to our homes.
Father has told me that Elder Brewster was a postmaster of Scrooby when
he first knew him; that his belief in our faith was so strong as to
make him one of the Non-Conformists, and so earnestly did he strive to
perform whatsoever he believed the Lord had for him to do, that his was
the house in Scrooby where our people listened to the expounding of the
word of God.
When he, with the others of our friends, went to Leyden, Master
Brewster was chosen as assistant to our preacher Robinson, and was made
an elder.
It is not seemly that a child so young as I should speak even in praise
of what my elders have done; but surely a girl can realize when a man
is watchful for the comfort of others, heeding not his own troubles or
pains, so that those around him may be soothed, and, next to Captain
Standish, Elder Brewster was the one to whom we children could go for
advice or assistance.
When the sickness was upon us, he, hardly able to be out of his bed,
ministered in turn to those who were dying, and to us who were nigh to
starvation, in as kindly, fatherly a manner as when he had sufficient
of the goods of this world to make himself comfortable both in body and
mind.