During one full week before the time set for us to leave home, mother
and I worked from daylight until dark making ready the food, for it
was no slight task to prepare enough to fill the stomachs of all our
company.
It is true we would be housed and fed in Salem; but no one could
say how the voyage might be prolonged, if the wind proved contrary,
therefore did it behoove us to prepare for a long passage lest we
suffer from hunger by the way.
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We made nookick enough, as father said, for the Plymouth army, and of
Indian corn meal and pumpkin bread, no less than twenty large loaves.
We had a sweet pudding in a bag for each person, counting Sarah and me;
Captain Standish had shot two wild ducks as his portion of the stores,
and these had been roasted until they were of a most delicious brown
shade, causing one's mouth to water when looking at them.
Father had cut up the salt and pickled fish until it could be stored in
gourds, and John Alden caught lobsters enough to prevent our suffering
from hunger during at least two days.
We had two pumpkins freshly roasted, which would remain sweet a long
while; the full half of a small cheese, a pat of butter as a luxury,
and much else which I cannot well call to mind.