into their shallop once more, they rowed as fast as they might back to the Mayflower in Cape Cod harbor, and brought to the wives and children, and to the others of the Pilgrims who had remained behind upon the ship, 5 the news of their safety and of their discovery, and all were much rejoiced. Four days later the Mayflower weighed anchor and sailed across the bay to the mouth of Plymouth harbor. They could not enter on that day, for the wind was 10 contrary, but the following day they went in and anchored, while some of them landed and made further explorations. In the harbor they found wild fowl and fish, clams, crabs, and lobsters; on the shore they found good timber-oak, pine, walnut, beech, birch, and ash. 15 There were also hazel nuts, wild-grape vines, plum and cherry trees, and quantities of holly and sassafras. A little farther up the bay they found the mouth of a river, up which they rowed the shallop for some three miles; but after looking all about the harbor it seemed to them 20 that the best spot was the one on which the party in the shallop had first set foot, for there the ground was high, and much land had been cleared, and, as their journal tells us, there is a very sweet brook that runs under the hillside," which was the Town Brook of Plymouth. 25 The weather was still stormy, and so much rain and snow fell that it was nearly another week before they could do much work. But those of the men who were able went ashore and cut and carried timber; and at length, on Christmas Day, they put up their first log house. QUESTIONS AND HELPS 1. Why did the Pilgrims come to America? 2. Where is Cape Cod? 3. How long did it take the Pilgrims to cross the Atlantic Ocean, and how long does it take now? 4. What is there in this story to make you think that the Indians had seen white men before? 5. Why were they afraid of the Pilgrims? 6. Draw a map of Cape Cod, Cape Cod Bay, and Plymouth harbor, and locate the places of which you have read. 7. How many exploring trips did the Pilgrims make before they finally landed at Plymouth? Why was the first trip so important? Would it have been as important if it had been a week or two later? Give reason for your answer, and tell what you can about the first trip. 8. Tell about the second trip. 9. Tell about the third trip. 10. Name some things that they found on their different trips which would be useful for food; for building. 11. What made the Pilgrims so brave, and why were they able to endure so much? 12. Name three differences between the first settlers of New England and the first settlers of Virginia (see pp. 238-247): (a) the time of the year at which they landed; (b) the way in which the Indians received them; (c) their reasons for coming to America. 13. Tell in what ways they were alike. For a fuller story of the settlement of New England read "Pilgrims and Puritans," by Nina Moore Tiffany, and “On Plymouth Rock," by S. A. Drake. Read also Felicia Hemans's poem The Pilgrim Fathers" (Literary Readers, Book Five). The waves that brought them o'er Still roll in the bay, as they rolled that day When the sea around was black with storms, THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER FRANCIS SCOTT KEY [A little more than a hundred years ago the United States and Great Britain were at war. It was not the Revolutionary War. That had been fought out more than thirty years before, and America In entered Washington and burned Washington James Richmond uxent R N. 5 Henr 10 the Capitol, the President's house, and several other public 15 buildings. Then they sailed down the Potomac River, out into Chesapeake Bay, and started for Baltimore, intending to treat it as they had treated Washington. On the way down the Potomac an American doctor, who had made himself troublesome to some of the officers, was taken on 20 board a British ship and carried away as a prisoner. Now it happened that at this time there was living in |