When we came ashore from the ships, no one claimed Nathaniel as servant,
and he, burning to be in my company, asked Captain Smith's permission
to enter his employ. My master replied that it had not been in his mind
there should be servants and lords in this new world of Virginia, where
one was supposed to be on the same footing as another; but if Nathaniel
were minded to live under the same roof with us, and would cheerfully
perform his full share of the labor, it might be as he desired.
Because our house was the first to be put up in the new village, and,
being made of logs, was by far the best shelter, even in comparison with
the tents of cloth, Nathaniel and I decided that it should be the most
homelike, if indeed that could be compassed where were no women to
keep things cleanly. I am in doubt as to whether Captain Smith, great
traveler and brave adventurer though he was, had even realized that with
only men to perform the household duties, there would be much lack of
comfort.
The floor of the house was only the bare earth beaten down hard. We lads
made brooms, by tying the twigs of trees to a stick, which was not what
might be called a good makeshift, and yet with such we kept the inside
of our home far more cleanly than were some of the tents.