Seedtime of the First Spring
Giles Hopkins and John and Francis Billington slept in the new house,
now nearly finished, on Leyden Street. Therefore it happened that
Stephen Hopkins did not see his son until the morning after the recovery
of the papers.
"Well, Giles," said his father, with a smile that Giles took to be
mocking, but in which the father's hidden gratification really strove to
escape, "so you played a man's part with the _Mayflower_ captain, at the
same time proving yourself? I am glad to get my papers, boy, and glad
that you have shown that you had no share in their loss, but only in
their return. Henceforth be somewhat less insolent when appearances are
against you; still better take care that appearances, facts as well, are
in your favour."
"Appearances are in the eye of the on-looker," said Giles, drawing
himself up and flushing angrily, though, had he but seen it, love and
pride in him shone in his father's eyes, though his tone and words were
careless, gruff indeed.
"If Dame Eliza is to be the glass through which you view me, then it
matters not what course I follow, for you will not see it straight. Nor
do I care to act to the end that you may not suspect me of being fit for
hanging. A gentleman's honour needs no proving, or else is proved by his
sword. And whatever you think of me, I can never defend myself thus
against my father. A father may insult his son with impunity."
"But a boy may not speak insultingly to his father with impunity, Master
Giles Hopkins," said Stephen Hopkins, advancing close to the lad with
his quick temper afire. "One word more of such nature as I just heard
and I will have you publicly flogged, as you richly deserve, and as our
community would applaud."
Giles bowed, his face as angry as his father's, and passed on cutting
the young sprouts along the road with a stick he carried. And thus the
two burning hearts which loved each other--too similar to make
allowances for each other when the way was open to their
reconciliation--were further estranged than before.
In the meantime Constance, Priscilla, and the younger girls, were
starting out, tools in hand, baskets swinging on their arms, to prepare
the first garden of the colony.
"Thank--I mean I rejoice that we are not sent to work amid the graves on
the hillside," said Priscilla, altering her form of expression to
conform with the prescribed sobriety.
"Oh, that is to be planted with the Indian corn, you know," said
Constance. "It grows high, and will hide our graves. Why think of that,
Prissy? I want to be happy." She began to hum a quaint air of her own
making. She had by inheritance the gift of music, as the kindred gift of
love and taste for all beauty, a gift that should never find expression
in her new surroundings.
Presently she found words for her small tune and sang them, swinging her
basket in time with her singing and also swinging Humility Cooper's hand
as she walked, not without some danger of dropping into a sort of dance
step.
This is what she sang:
Over seas lies England;
Still we find this wing-land;
Birds and bees and butterflies flit about us here.
Eastward lies our Mother,
Loved as is no other,
Yet here flowers blossom with the springing year.
We will plant a garden,
Eve-like, as the warden
Of the hope of men unborn, future of the race;
Tears that we were weeping,
Watering our keeping,
Till we make the New World joy's own dwelling place.
Priscilla Mullins stopped short and looked with amazement on her younger
companion.
"Did you make that song, Constance?" she demanded, being used to the
rhyming which Constance made to entertain the little ones.
"It made itself, Pris," laughed Constance.
"Well, I'm no judge of songs, and as to rhyming I could match cat and
rat if it was put to me to do, but no more. Yet it seemeth me that is a
pretty song, with exactly the truth for its burden, and it trippeth as
sweetly as the robin whistles. Do you know, Constance, it seems to me to
run more into smooth cadences than the Metrical Psalms themselves!"
Priscilla dropped her voice as she said this, as if she hoped to be
unheard by the vengeance which might swoop down on her.
Constance's laugh rang out merrily, quite unafraid.
"Oh, dear Prissy, the Metrical Version was not meant to run in smooth
cadences!" she cried. "Do you see why we should not sing as the robin
whistles, being young and God's creatures, surely not less than the
birds? Priscilla Mullins, there is John Alden awaiting us in the very
spot where we are to work! How did he happen there, when no other man is
about?"
"He spoke to me of helping us with the first heavy turning of the soil,"
said Priscilla, exceedingly red and uncomfortable, but constrained to be
truthful. "Oh, Constance, never look at me like that! Can I help it that
Master Alden is so considerate of us?"
"Sure-ly not!" declared Constance emphatically. "What about his
returning home, Pris? He was hired but as cooper for the voyage, and
would return. Will he go, think you?"
"He seems not fully decided. He said somewhat to me of staying." Poor
Priscilla looked more than miserable as she said this, yet was forced to
laugh.
"I will speak to my father and Captain Standish to get them to offer him
work a-plenty this summer, so mayhap they can persuade him to let the
_Mayflower_ sail without him--next week she goes. Or perhaps you could
bring arguments to bear upon him, Priscilla! He never seems
stiff-necked, nor unbiddable." Constance said this with a great effect
of innocence, as if a new thought had struck her, and Priscilla had
barely time to murmur:
"Thou art a sad tease, Constance," before they came up with John Alden,
who looked as embarrassed as Priscilla when he met Constance's dancing
eyes.
Nevertheless it was not long before John Alden and Priscilla Mullins
were working together at a little distance apart from the rest, leaving
Constance to dig and rake in company with Humility Cooper, Elizabeth
Tilley, and the little girls. Thus at work they saw approaching from the
end of the road that was lost in the woods beyond a small but imposing
procession of tall figures, wrapped in gaudy colored blankets, their
heads surmounted with banded feathers which streamed down their backs,
softly waving in the light breeze.
"Oh, dear, oh, dear, Connie, they are savages!" whispered Damaris
looking about as if wishing that a hole had been dug big enough to hide
her instead of the small peas which she was planting.
"But they are friendly savages, small sister," said Constance. "See,
they carry no bows and arrows. Do you know, girls, I believe this is the
great chief Massasoit, of whom Samoset spoke, promising us his visit
soon, and that with him may be Squanto, the Indian who speaks English!
Don't you think we may be allowed to postpone the rest of the work to
see the great conference which will take place if this is Massasoit?"
"Indeed, Constance, my back calls me to cease louder than any savage,"
said Humility, her hand on her waist, twisting her small body from side
to side. "I have been wishing we might dare stop, but I couldn't bring
myself to say so."
"You have not recovered strength for this bending and straining work, my
dear," said Constance in her grandmotherly way. "Priscilla, Priscilla!
John Alden, see!" she called, and the distant pair faced her with a
visible start.
She pointed to the savages, and Priscilla and John hastened to her,
thinking her afraid.
"Do you suppose it may be Massasoit and Squanto?" Constance asked at
once.
"Let us hope so," said John Alden, looking with eager interest at the
Indians. "We hope to make a treaty with Massasoit."
"Before you sail?" inquired Constance, guilelessly.
"Why, I am decided to cast my lot in with the colony, sweet Constance,"
said John, trying, but failing, to keep from looking at Priscilla.
"Pris?" cried Constance, and waited.
Priscilla threw her arms around Constance and hid her face, crying on
her shoulder.
"My people are all dead, Connie, and I alone survive of us all on the
_Mayflower_! Even my brother Joseph died; you know it, Connie! Do you
blame me?" she sobbed.
"Oh, Prissy, dear Prissy!" Constance laughed at this piteous appeal.
"Just as though you did not find John Alden most likeable when we were
sailing and no one had yet died! And just as though you had to explain
liking him! As though we did not all hold him dear and long to keep him
with us! John Alden, I never, never would sit quiet under such insult!
You funny Priscilla! What are you crying for? Aren't you happy? tell me
that!"
"So happy I must cry," sobbed Priscilla, but drying her eyes
nevertheless. "Do you suppose those savages see me?"
"I am sure of it," declared Constance. "Likely they will refuse to make
a treaty with white men whose women act so strangely! My father is going
to be as glad of your treaty with Priscilla as of the savage chief's
treaty, an it be made, Master Alden."
"What is it? What's to do, dear John Alden?" clamoured Damaris, who
never spoke to John without the caressing epithet.
The young man swung her to his shoulder, and kissed the soil-stained
hand which the child laid against his cheek.
"I shall marry Priscilla and stay in Plymouth, not go back to England at
all! Does that please you, little maid?" he cried, gaily.
Damaris scowled at him, weighing the case.
"If you like me best," she said doubtfully.
"Of a certainty!" affirmed John Alden, for once disregarding scruples.
"Could I swing up Priscilla on my shoulder like this, I ask you? Why,
she's not even a little girl!"
And confiding little Damaris was satisfied.
By this time the band of savages had advanced to the point of the road
nearest to where the girls and John Alden were working.
"We must go to greet them lest they find us remiss. We do not know the
workings of their minds," said John Alden, striding down toward them,
followed by the somewhat timorous group of grown and little girls,
Damaris clinging to him, with one hand on Constance, in fearful
enjoyment of the wonderful sight.
"Welcome!" said John Alden, coming across the undergrowth to where the
savages awaited him. "If you come in friendship, as I see you do,
welcome, my brothers."
"Welcome," said an Indian, stepping somewhat in advance. "We come in
friendship. I am Squanto who know your race. I have been in England; I
have seen the king. I am bring you friendship. This is Massasoit, the
great chief. You are not the great white chief. He is old a little. Take
us there."
"Gladly will I take you to our governor, who is, as you say, much older
than I, and to our war chief, Myles Standish, and to the elders of our
nation," said John Alden. "Follow me. You are most welcome, Massasoit,
and Squanto, who can speak our tongue."
The singular company, the girls in their deep bonnets to shade them from
the sun, the Indians in their paint and gay nodding feathers, the
children divided between keen enjoyment of the novelty and equally keen
fear of what might happen next, with John Alden the only white man, came
down into Plymouth settlement, not yet so built up as to suggest the
name.
Governor Carver was busied with William Bradford over the records of the
colony, from which they were making extracts to dispatch to England in
the near sailing of the _Mayflower_. John Alden turned to Elizabeth
Tilley.
"Run on, little maid, and tell the governor and elders whom we bring,"
he said.
Elizabeth darted into the house, earning a frown from the governor for
her lack of manners, but instantly forgiven when she cried:
"John Alden and we who were working in the field are bringing Your
Excellency the Indian chief Massasoit, and Squanto, who talks to us in
English wonderful to hear, when you look at his feathers and painted
face! And John Alden sent me on to tell you. And, there are other
Indians with them. And, oh, Governor Carver, shall I tell the women in
the community house to cook meat for their dinner, or shall it be just
our common dinner of porridge with, maybe, a smoked herring to sharpen
us? For this the governor should order, should not he?"
Governor Carver and William Bradford smiled. As a rule the younger
members of the community over which these elder, grave men were set,
feared them too much to say anything at which they could smile, but the
greatness of this occasion swept Elizabeth beyond herself.
"I think, Mistress Elizabeth Tilley, that the matrons will not need the
governor's counsel as to the feeding of our guests," said Governor
Carver kindly. "Tell Constantia Hopkins to bid her father hither at his
earliest convenience. I shall ask him to make the treaty with Massasoit,
together with Edward Winslow, if it be question of a treaty, as I hope."
Elizabeth sped back and met the approaching guests. She dropped a
frightened curtsy, not knowing the etiquette of meeting a band of
friendly savages. But as they paid no attention to her, her manners did
not matter, and realizing this with relief she joined Constance at the
rear of the procession and delivered her message.
"Porridge indeed!" exclaimed Mistress Hopkins when Elizabeth Tilley
repeated to her the governor's comment on her own suggestion as to the
dinner for the Indian guests. "Porridge is well enough for us, but we
will set the savages down to no such fare, but to our best, lest they
fall to and eat us all some night in the dark of the moon, when we are
asleep and unprotected! Little I thought I should be cooking for wild
red men in an American forest when I learned to make sausage in my
father's house! But learn I did, and to make it fit for the king, so it
should please the savages, though what they like is beyond my knowledge.
Sausage shall they have, and whether or no they will take to griddle
cakes I dare not say, but it's my opinion that men are men, civilized or
wild, and never a man did I see that was not as keen set on griddle
cakes as a fox on a chicken roost. It will be our part to feed these
savages well, for, as I say, men are men, wild or English, and if you
would have a man deal well by you make your terms after he hath well
eaten. Thus may your father and Elder Brewster get a good treaty from
these painted creatures. Get out the flour, Constantia, and stir up the
batter. Humility and Elizabeth, fetch the jar of griddle fat. Priscilla
Mullins, what aileth thee? Art sleep-walking? Call a boy to fetch wood
for the hearth, and fill the kettle. Are you John-a-Dreams, and is this
the time for dreaming?"
"It's John-dream at least, is it not, Prissy?" whispered Constance,
pinching the girl lightly as she passed her on her way to do her share
of her step-mother's bidding.
Later Constance went to summon the guests to the community house for
their dinner. They came majestically, escorted by the governor, Elder
Brewster, William Bradford, Stephen Hopkins, the weighty men of the
colony, with Captain Standish in advance, representing the power of
might. What the Indians thought of these Englishmen no one could tell;
certainly they were not less appreciative of the counsel of the wise
than of the force of arms, having reliance on their own part upon their
medicine men and soothsayers.
What they thought of the white women's cooking was soon perfectly
apparent. It kept the women busy to serve them with cakes, to hold the
glowing coals on the hearth at the right degree to keep the griddle
heated to the point of perfect browning, never passing it to the burning
point. The Indians devoured the cakes like a band of hungry boys, and
Mistress Hopkins's boasted sausage was never better appreciated on an
English farm table than here.
The young girls served the guests, which the Indians accepted as the
natural thing, being used to taking the first place with squaws, both
young and old.
The homebrewed beer which had come across seas in casks abundantly, also
met with ultimate approval, though at first taste two or three of the
Indians nearly betrayed aversion to its bitterness. There were "strong
waters" too, made riper by long tossing in the _Mayflower's_ hold, which
needed no persuading of the Indians' palates.
After the guests had dined Giles, John, Francis, and the other older
boys, came trooping to the community house for their dinner.
When they discovered that Squanto spoke English fairly well they were
agog to hear from him the many things that he could tell them.
"Stay with us; they do not need you," they implored, but Squanto,
mindful of his duties as interpreter, reluctantly left them presently.
Massasoit and his other companions returned with the white men to the
conclave house, which was the governor's and Elder Brewster's home.
"I go but wish I might stay a little hour," said Squanto. He won
Mistress Eliza's heart, with Mistress White's, by his evident
friendliness and desire to stay with them.
After this Damaris and the children could not fear him, and thus at his
first introduction, Squanto, who was to become the friend and reliance
of the colony, became what is even more, the friend of the little
children.