THE FIRST THANKSGIVING DAY OF NEW ENGLAND.
"Oh Priscilla, girl, what thinkst thou is toward now?" demanded Mary
Chilton, running down to the spring where her friend was sprinkling and
turning a piece of coarse linen spun and woven by her own hands for
domestic use; but straightening herself at the merry summons, her dark
eyes lighted with animation as she responded in the same tone,--
"The governor is fain to marry thee, and the elder is ready to give his
blessing. Is 't so?"
"Thou foolish girl! It's not at me Master Bradford looks oftenest, not
nigh as often as the captain looks at thee, nay but John Alden"--
"What is it! What's thy news! Speak quick or I'll sprinkle thee rather
than the linen!" and raising the wooden dipper Priscilla whirled it so
rapidly round her head that not a drop was spilled, while Mary shrieking
and laughing darted back and crouched behind an alder bush.
"Maids! Maids! Whence this unseemly mirth! Know ye not that the laughter
of fools is like the crackling of thorns under the pot, a sure sign of
the fire they are hasting to? The devil goeth about like a roaring
lion"--
"Sometimes methinks he seemeth more like an ass," murmured Priscilla in
Mary's ear, setting her off into convulsions of repressed laughter,
while her naughty tormentor looked demurely up the bank to the angular
figure defined against the evening sky and said,--
"We are beholden to you for the admonition, Master Allerton, and it must
be a marvelous comfort to you that Mary and Remember Allerton weep so
much oftener than they laugh."
"I would, thou froward wench, that I had the training of thee for a
while. Mayhap thou wouldst find cause for weeping"--
"Nay, I'm sure on 't. The very thought well-nigh makes me weep now,"
retorted Priscilla blithely, as the sour-visaged Councilor went on his
way, and Mary half frightened, half delighted, came forward saying,--
"Oh Priscilla, how dost thou dare flout Master Allerton in that style!
He'll have thee before the Church."
"Not he!" replied Priscilla coolly. "Hist now, poppet, and I'll tell
thee something--thou 'lt not repeat it though?"
"Not I," replied Mary stoutly.
"Well, then, dost think I should make a fitting stepdame for Bartholomew
and Mary and Remember?"
"Dost mean"--
"Ay do I, just that. And because I could not but laugh merrily at the
notion when 't was placed before me last Sunday night, the Assistant
looketh sourly enough but dareth not meddle with me lest I make others
laugh as well as myself."
"Priscilla! Mary!" called Elizabeth Tilley's voice from the doorstep.
"Mistress Brewster would have you in to see about noon-meat."
"But thy news, poppet, quick!" exclaimed Priscilla as gathering up her
gear she slowly led the way up the hill.
"Why, the governor hath resolved upon a day, or rather a week, of
holiday and of thanksgiving for the mercies God hath showed us. Think of
it, Pris! A whole week of feasting and holiday!"
"Hm!" dryly responded Priscilla. "It sounds well enow, but who is to
make ready this feasting?"
"Why--all of us--and chiefly you, dear wench, for none can season a
delicate dish or"--
"Ay, ay, I know that song full well; but dost really think, Molly, that
to do a good deal more, and a good deal harder cooking than our wont,
will be so very sprightly a holiday?"
"But 't will be doing our part to make holiday for the others," replied
Mary simply.
"Now, then, if thou 'rt not at thy old tricks of shaming my selfish
frowardness!" exclaimed Priscilla, and laughing they entered the house
where all the women of the community were assembled in eager debate over
their share in the approaching festival.
"The governor hath already ordered my man, with Dotey and Soule and
Latham, to go afield to-morrow with their guns, and to spend two days in
gathering game," announced Helen Billington with an air of importance.
"And it was determined to invite King Massasoit and his train to the
feast," eagerly added Mistress Winslow, who, with her baby Peregrine
White in her arms, had run across the street to join the council.
"Methinks another party should go to the beach to dig clams," suggested
Dame Hopkins. "For though not so toothsome as venison and birds 't is a
prey more surely to be come by."
"The elder saith the God of Jacob sendeth us the clams as he did manna
to those other children of his in the desert," added the weak sweet
voice of the elder's wife. "At morning and at night we may gather them
in certainty."
"But they hold not sweet over Sunday, that is if the day be hot,"
suggested Desire Minter ruefully.
"And Priscilla we shall look to thee for marchpanes and manchets and
plum-porridge and possets and all manner of tasty cates, such as only
thou canst make," said the dame hastily, and fixing her eyes upon the
girl's face as if to hinder any irreverent laughter at Desire's speech.
"All that I can do I will do blithely and steadfastly if it will
pleasure you, mother," replied Priscilla gently, as she knelt down
beside the invalid and rested against the arm of that old chair which
you may see to-day reverently preserved in Plymouth.
"I know thou wilt, sweetheart," replied the dame laying her frail hand
upon the girl's abundant hair. "But I fear me our men cannot dine to-day
on the promise of the coming feast."
"Well thought on, mother. Come maids to work, to work!"
That same afternoon Squanto was dispatched to Namasket to send from
thence a runner to Massasoit inviting him, with his brother and a
fitting escort, to the feast of Thanksgiving now fixed for the following
Thursday; and so cordially did the great sachem respond, that about
sunrise on the appointed day the laggards of the settlement were aroused
by the terrific whoop and succession of unearthly shrieks with which the
guests announced at once their arrival and their festive and playful
condition of mind.
Three of the leaders were ready even at this hour to receive the over
punctual guests: the elder, who had risen early to prepare a few brief
remarks suited to the occasion; Standish, who was always afoot to fire
his sunrise gun; and Bradford, who valued the quiet morning hour in
which he might allow his mind to dwell upon those abstruse and profound
subjects so dear to his heart, and yet never allowed to intrude upon the
business of the working day. So, while Winslow with his wife's
assistance did on his more festive doublet and hose, and Allerton spake
bitter words to Remember who had forgotten to replace the button that
should hold her father's collar in place, and gentle Warren, the gruff
Surgeon, and the rest made ready as they might, these three stood forth
to receive Massasoit and Quadequina, who with a dozen or so of their
principal pnieses came forward with considerable dignity, and through
Squanto and Hobomok made their compliments in truly regal style, while
their followers to the number of about ninety men with a few women
remained modestly in the background.
Presently when the village was well afoot, and a big fire started
between the elder's house and the brook for cooking purposes, the roll
of the drum announced the morning prayers, with which the Pilgrims began
every day, and more especially this Feast of Thanksgiving. The Indians
stood reverently around, Massasoit explaining in low gutturals to a
chieftain who had never visited Plymouth before, that the white men thus
propitiated the Great Spirit, and engaged Him both to prosper them and
kill their enemies.
Prayers ended, Priscilla with her attendants flew back to the fire, and
presently a long table spread in the open air for the men was covered
with great wooden bowls full of what a later generation named
hasty-pudding, to be eaten with butter and treacle, for milk was not to
be had for more than one year to come. Other bowls contained an
excellent clam chowder with plenty of sea biscuit swimming in the savory
broth, while great pieces of cold boiled beef with mustard, flanked by
dishes of turnips, offered solid resistance to those who so joyfully
attacked them.
Another table in the Common house offered somewhat more delicate food to
the women and children, chief among it a great pewter bowl of
plum-porridge with bits of toasted cracker floating upon it.
The meal was a rude one looked upon with the dainty eyes and languid
appetites of to-day, but to those sturdy and heroic men and women it was
a veritable feast, and at its close Quadequina with an amiable smile
nodded to one of his attendants, who produced and poured upon the table
something like a bushel of popped corn,--a dainty hitherto unseen and
unknown by most of the Pilgrims.
All tasted, and John Howland hastily gathering up a portion upon a
wooden plate carried it to the Common house for the delectation of the
women, that is to say, for Elizabeth Tilley, whose firm young teeth
craunched it with much gusto.
Breakfast over, with a grace after meat that amounted to another
service, the governor announced that some military exercises under the
direction of Captain Standish would now take place, and the guests were
invited to seat themselves in the vicinity of a fire kindled on the
ground at the northerly part of the village about at the head of Middle
Street, and designed more as a common centre and social feature than
for need since the weather was mild and lovely, so peculiarly so that
when it recurred the next November and the next, the people remembering
that first feast said, "Why, here is the Indians' summer again!" But on
that day the only thought was that God accepted their thanksgiving and
smiled His approval.
Hardly had the guests comprehended the announcement and placed
themselves in order, when a wild fanfare of trumpets, an imposing roll
of drums was heard from the vicinity of the Fort, and down the hill in
orderly array marched the little army of nineteen men, preceded by the
military band and led by their doughty Captain. Above their heads
floated the banner of Old England, and beneath their corselets beat true
English hearts; and yet here stood the nucleus of that power which a
century and a half later was to successfully defy and throw off the rule
of that magnificent but cruel stepdame; here stood the first American
army; and then, as since, that score of determined souls struck terror
into the hearts of five times their number.
"If they have beguiled us here to destroy us!" murmured Quadequina in
his brother's ear.
"Canst not tell an eagle from a carrion-crow?" returned the wiser man.
"Would Winsnow, or The-Sword, or the Chief, or the powah, do this?
Peace, my brother."
But as the military manoeuvres accompanied with frequent discharges of
musketry, and accented at one point with a tremendous roar from the
cannon of the Fort progressed, not only Quadequina, but many other of
the braves became very uneasy; and to this cause as well as benevolence,
may be attributed the offer made at dinner time by Quadequina to lead a
hunting party of his own people into the woods to look for deer, whose
haunts they well knew.
Standish alone suspected this _arrière pensée_, and when Bradford mildly
applauded the generous kindness of their guests, he answered with a
chuckle,--
"Ay, as kind as the traveler who begs the highwayman to let him go home
and fetch a larger treasure."
But in spite of his doubts the prince intended and made a _bonâ fide_
hunt, and returned early in the next day with as much venison as lasted
the entire company four days.
"Oh, if I had but some Spanish chestnuts to stuff these turkeys, they
might seem more like their brethren across the seas," exclaimed
Priscilla as she turned over a pile of the wild birds and chose those to
be first cooked.
"Nay, but to me the flavor is better, and the meat more succulent of
these than of any I ever saw at home," replied John Alden. "And the
size! Do but look at this fellow, he will scale well-nigh twenty pound
if an ounce."
"If 't were a goose I would name it John, 't would be so prodigious a
goose," replied Priscilla with a glance so saucy and so bewitching that
her adorer forgot to reply, and she went briskly on,--
"Come now, young man, there's much to do and scant time to talk of it.
Call me some of those gaping boys yonder and let them pluck these fowl,
and bid John Billington come and break up these deer. And I must have
wood and water galore to make meat for a hundred men. Stir thyself!"
"I was thinking, Priscilla--why not stuff the turkeys with beechnuts?
There is store of them up at our cottage."
"How came they there? Doth our doughty Captain go birds-nesting and
nutting in his by-times?"
"Nay, but I did, that is, I gathered the nuts for thee, and then--then
feared if I offered them thou 'dst only flout me"--
"Oh, sure never was a poor maid so bestead with blind men--well, fetch
thy beechnuts."
"Nay, Priscilla, but blind, blind? How then am I blind, maiden, say?"
"Why, not to have discovered ere this how I dote upon beechnuts. There,
get thee gone for them."
The dressing of beechnuts proved a rare success, but the preparation
proved so long a process that only the delicate young bird made ready
for the table where Mistress Brewster presided was thus honored,
although in after times Priscilla often made what she called
goose-dressing; and when a few years later some sweet potatoes were
brought to Plymouth from the Carolinas, she at once adopted them for the
same purpose.
And so the festival went on for its appointed length of three days, and
perhaps the hearty fellowship and good will manifested by the white men
toward their guests, and their determination to meet them on the ground
of common interests and sympathies, went quite as far as their evident
superiority in arms and resources toward establishing the deep-founded
and highly valued peace, without which the handful of white men could
never have made good their footing upon that stern and sterile coast.
On the Saturday the feast was closed by a state dinner whose composition
taxed Priscilla as head cook to the limit of her resources, and with
flushed cheek and knitted brow she moved about among her willing
assitants with all the importance of a Bechamel, a Felix, the
_maître-d'hôtel_ of Cardinal Fesch with his two turbots, or luckless
Vatel who fell upon his sword and died because he had no turbot at all;
or even, rising in the grandeur of the comparison, we may liken her to
Domitian, who, weary of persecuting Christians, one day called the Roman
Senate together to decide with him upon the sauce with which another
historic turbot should be dressed.
Some late arrivals among the Indians had that morning brought in several
large baskets of the delicious oysters for which Wareham is still
famous, and although it was an unfamiliar delicacy to her, Priscilla,
remembering a tradition brought from Ostend to Leyden by some travelers,
compounded these with biscuit-crumbs, spices, and wine, and was looking
about for an iron pan wherein to bake them, when Elizabeth Tilley
brought forward some great clam and scallop shells which John Howland
had presented to her, just as now a young man might offer a unique
Sèvres tea-set to the lady of his love.
"Wouldn't it do to fill these with thy oyster compote, and so set them
in the ashes to roast?" inquired she. "Being many they can be laid at
every man's place at table."
"Why, 't is a noble idea, child," exclaimed Priscilla eagerly. "'T will
be a novelty, and will set off the board famously. Say you not so,
John?"
"Ay," returned Alden, who was busily opening the oysters at her side.
"And more by token there is a magnificence in the idea that thou hast
not thought on; for as at a great man's table the silver dishes each
bear the crest of his arms, so we being Pilgrims and thus privileged to
wear the scallop shell in our hats, do rather choose to display it upon
our board."
"Ah, John, thou hast an excellent wit--in _some_ things," replied
Priscilla with a half sigh which set the young fellow wondering for an
hour.
By noon the long tables were spread, and still the sweet warm air of the
"Indian Summer" made the out-of-door feast not only possible but
charming, for the gauzy veil upon the distant forest, and the marine
horizon, and the curves of Captain's Hill, seemed to shut in this little
scene from all the world of turmoil and danger and fatigue, while the
thick yellow sunshine filtered through with just warmth enough for
comfort, and the sighing southerly breeze brought wafts of perfume from
the forest, and bore away, as it wandered northward, the peals of
laughter, the merry yet discreet songs, and the multitudinous hum of
blithe voices, Saxon and savage, male and female, adult and childish,
that filled the dreamy air.
The oysters in their scallop shells were a singular success, and so were
the mighty venison pasties, and the savory stew compounded of all that
flies the air, and all that flies the hunter in Plymouth woods, no
longer flying now but swimming in a glorious broth cunningly seasoned by
Priscilla's anxious hand, and thick bestead with dumplings of barley
flour, light, toothsome, and satisfying. Beside these were roasts of
various kinds, and thin cakes of bread or manchets, and bowls of salad
set off with wreaths of autumn leaves laid around them, and great
baskets of grapes, white and purple, and of the native plum, so
delicious when fully ripe in its three colors of black, white, and red.
With these were plentiful flagons of ale, for already the housewives had
laid down the first brewing of the native brand, and had moreover
learned of the Indians to concoct a beverage akin to what is now called
root beer, well flavored with sassafras, of which the Pilgrims had been
glad to find good store since it brought a great price in the English
market.
It was during the last half hour of this feast that Desire Minter, who
with the other girls served the tables where the men sat at meat, placed
a little silver cup at Captain Standish's right hand saying,--
"Priscilla sends you some shrub, kind sir, of her own composition, and
prays you drink her health."
"Why, then, 't is kind of her who hath been most unkind of late,"
returned Myles, upon whose seasoned brain the constant potations of
three days had wrought to lull suspicion and reserve, and taking the cup
he tossed off its contents at a draught, and rising bowed toward
Priscilla who was flitting in and out among the tables. She returned the
salute with a little air of surprise, and Myles reseating himself turned
to question Desire again, but she had departed carrying the cup with
her.
"Nay, then, I'll be toyed with no longer," muttered the Captain angrily,
and although he bore his part in the closing ceremonies with which the
governor bade a cordial and even affectionate farewell to the king, the
prince, their nobles, and their following, there was a glint in his eye
and a set to his lips that would have told one who knew him well that
the spirit of the man was roused and not lightly to be laid to rest
again.