Then stood Pecksuot forth, self-vaunting, insulting Miles Standish;

While with his fingers he patted the knife that hung at his

bosom,

Drawing it half from its sheath, and plunging it back, as he muttered,

60

"By and by it shall see; it shall eat; ah, ha! but shall speak not! This is the mighty Captain the white men have sent to destroy us!

He is a little man; let him go and work with the women!"

Meanwhile Standish had noted the faces and figures of Indians

Peeping and creeping about from bush to tree in the forest, 65 Feigning to look for game, with arrows set on their bow

strings,

Drawing about him still closer and closer the net of their ambush.

But undaunted he stood, and dissembled and treated them smoothly;

So the old chronicles say, that were writ in the days of the fathers.

But when he heard their defiance, the boast, the taunt and

the insult,

70

All the hot blood of his race, of Sir Hugh and of Thurston de Standish,

Boiled and beat in his heart, and swelled in the veins of his temples.

Headlong he leaped on the boaster, and, snatching his knife from its scabbard,

man's face on it, and by and by these two must marry.' Further, he said of that knife he there had, Hinnaim namen, hinnaim michen, matta cuts; that is to say, By and by it should see, and by and by it should eat, but not speak. Also Pecksuot, being a man of greater stature than the captain, told him, though he were a great captain, yet he was but a little man; and, said he, though I be no sachem, yet I am a man of great strength and courage." Winslow's Relation of Standish's Expedition.

Plunged it into his heart, and, reeling backward, the savage Fell with his face to the sky, and a fiendlike fierceness upon it.

75 Straight there arose from the forest the awful sound of the war-whoop,

And, like a flurry of snow on the whistling wind of December, Swift and sudden and keen came a flight of feathery arrows. Then came a cloud of smoke, and out of the cloud came the lightning,

Out of the lightning thunder; and death unseen ran before

it.

80 Frightened the savages fled for shelter in swamp and in

thicket,

Hotly pursued and beset; but their sachem, the brave Wattawamat,

Fled not; he was dead. Unswerving and swift had a bullet Passed through his brain, and he fell with both hands clutching the greensward,

Seeming in death to hold back from his foe the land of his fathers.

85

There on the flowers of the meadow the warriors lay, and

above them

Silent, with folded arms, stood Hobomok, friend of the white

man.

Smiling at length he exclaimed to the stalwart Captain of Plymouth:

"Pecksuot bragged very loud, of his courage, his strength and his stature,

Mocked the great Captain, and called him a little man; but I

see now

90

Big enough have you been to lay him speechless before you!"11

1 "Hobbamock stood by all this time as a spectator," says Winslow, "and meddled not, observing how our men demeaned themselves in this action. All being here ended, smiling, he brake forth into these speeches to the Captain: 'Yesterday Pecksuot,

Thus the first battle was fought and won by the stalwart Miles Standish.

When the tidings thereof were brought to the village of Plymouth,

And as a trophy of war the head of the brave Wattawamat' Scowled from the roof of the fort, which at once was a church and a fortress, 95

All who beheld it rejoiced, and praised the Lord, and took courage.

Only Priscilla averted her face from this spectre of terror, Thanking God in her heart that she had not married Miles Standish;

Shrinking, fearing almost, lest, coming home from his battles, He should lay claim to her hand, as the prize and reward of his valor.

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VIII.

THE SPINNING WHEEL.

MONTH after month passed away, and in autumn the ships of the merchants 2

Came with kindred and friends, with cattle and corn for the

Pilgrims.

All in the village was peace; the men were intent on their

labors,

Busy with hewing and building, with garden-plot and with merestead,"

bragging of his own strength and stature, said, though you were a great captain, yet you were but a little man; but to-day I see you are big enough to lay him on the ground.'

1 "Now was the Captain returned," says Winslow, "and received with joy, the head being brought to the fort, and there set up." The Pilgrims were observing a ghastly custom which they had been familiar with in England, of exposing in conspicuous places, such as London Bridge and Temple Bar, the heads of traitors, highwaymen, etc., as a warning to other criminals.

2 The "Anne" and the "Little James," which arrived in August, 1623.

A homestead or bounded portion of land; O. E., mere, boundary; stead, place.

Busy with breaking the glebe, and mowing the grass in the

meadows.

5

Searching the sea for its fish, and hunting the deer in the

forest.

All in the village was peace; but at times the rumor of warfare

Filled the air with alarm, and the apprehension of danger. Bravely the stalwart Standish was scouring the land with his

forces,

Waxing valiant in fight and defeating the alien armies,'

10

Till his name had become a sound of fear to the nations. Anger was still in his heart, but at times the remorse and con

trition

Which in all noble natures succeed the passionate outbreak, Came like a rising tide, that encounters the rush of a river, Staying its current a while, but making it bitter and brack

ish.

15

Meanwhile Alden at home had built him a new habitation,❜ Solid, substantial, of timber rough-hewn from the firs of the

forest.

Wooden-barred was the door, and the roof was covered with

rushes;

'Latticed the windows were, and the window-panes were of

paper,

Oiled to admit the light, while wind and rain were ex

cluded.

20

There too he dug a well, and around it planted an orchard: Still may be seen to this day some trace of the well and the

orchard.

Close to the house was the stall, where, safe and secure from annoyance,

1 Hebrews, xi. 34.

2 On the present site of Duxbury, situated on the coast about thirty miles southeast of Boston. The homestead is still owned by descendants of Alden.

Raghorn, the snow-white bull, that had fallen to Alden's allotment

In the division of cattle, might ruminate in the night-time 25 Over the pastures he cropped, made fragrant by sweet pennyroyal.

Oft when his labor was finished, with eager feet would the dreamer

Follow the pathway that ran through the woods to the house of Priscilla,

Led by illusions romantic and subtle deceptions of fancy, Pleasure disguised as duty, and love in the semblance of

friendship.

30

Ever of her he thought, when he fashioned the walls of his

dwelling;

Ever of her he thought, when he delved in the soil of his

garden;

Ever of her he thought, when he read in his Bible on Sunday Praise of the virtuous woman, as she is described in the Proverbs,'

How the heart of her husband doth safely trust in her always, 35

How all the days of her life she will do him good, and not

evil,

How she seeketh the wool and the flax and worketh with glad

ness,

How she layeth her hand to the spindle and holdeth the distaff, How she is not afraid of the snow for herself or her household, Knowing her household are clothed with the scarlet cloth of her weaving!

40

So as she sat at her wheel one afternoon in the Autumn, Alden, who opposite sat, and was watching her dexterous

fingers,

1 Proverbs, xxxi. 10-31.