Standish of Standish: A Story of the Pilgrims

by Jane G. Austin

  CHAPTER XXXV.

  THE BRIDES' SHIP.

  The rain proved as persistent as it was gentle, and under its influencethe wind sighed itself asleep, leaving at sunset the ship espied byHobomok becalmed outside Beach Point. Some of the Pilgrims would haverowed out to her, but Bradford knew from his own feelings how unfit theywere for such heavy labor.

  "A little patience should not be hard for men who have patiently waitedso long," said he smiling. "Let us all break our fast withthanksgiving."

  "One more cup of broth and a bit of the hare," said Priscilla gayly, asshe set a little table beside her precious invalid. "And to-morrow Idoubt not but I can offer you a posset of white flour and sugar andspice and all sorts of comfortable things. Whatever the ship may be't is sure to have the making of a posset in her."

  "Oh Priscilla, dear maid, if it might be,--if I dared think of my twogirls"--

  The trembling voice gave way, and for a moment Priscilla could notspeak. Then she cheerily said,--

  "If not themselves there is sure to be news of them, and God is verygood. Pr'ythee take the broth."

  "There then, good child. Now go to thine own supper. Mary is placing itupon the board."

  Dropping a light kiss upon the face lovingly upturned, Priscilla passedinto the outer room where upon the great table standing to-day inPilgrim Hall rested a wooden bowl filled with boiled clams, and besideit a dish of coarse salt and a pewter flagon of water. Only this, nobread, no vegetable, no after course; but at the head of the table stoodthe elder, his worn face radiant with gratitude, as, uplifting hisvoice, he gave thanks to God for that he and his might "suck of theabundance of the seas and of the treasures hid in the sand."

  After midnight a breeze sprung up, but the master of the Anne cautiouslywaited for the full tide to float him over the many flats then as nowobstructing Plymouth Harbor, and it was not until another sunrise thatthe travel-worn and over-crowded bark folded her patched sails anddropped her anchor not far from the old anchorage ground of theMayflower.

  The governor no longer tried to restrain the enthusiasm of his townsmen;in fact, he himself helped to drag up the anchor of the pinnace and makeher ready for a visit to the stranger. With him went Jonathan Brewsterto see if perchance his sisters might be on board; and Doctor Fuller,and Robert Hicks, and Francis Cooke, and William Palmer, and MasterWarren, albeit not fit even for so small an exertion, for every one ofthese men thought it possible that his wife might be aboard, nor was oneof them disappointed, for the Anne, might well have dropped her anchorto the tune of "Sweethearts and Wives," so laden was she with thoseprecious commodities.

  "Come Captain!" called Bradford as the dory lay ready to transport thelast three to the pinnace already under sail.

  "No," somewhat morosely returned Standish. "I shall only be in the wayof other men's rejoicings. There's naught for me aboard that or anyother ship that floats. No, I say,--push off, Cooke!"

  And the captain strode up the hill, and climbed the roof of the Fort tocover and pet his big guns and see that the dampness did them nomischief.

  Below, Alden helped Priscilla to make ready all the food remaining inthe village, for surely the new-comer had brought supplies, and thefamine was at an end.

  "If this ship might bring him a wife as perchance it hath to our goodsurgeon," said John after describing his master's mood.

  "Ay, but I fear me he'll be hard to suit," replied Priscilla.

  "Natheless, remember sweetheart, you promised me that so soon as thefamine was over and our new house finished"--

  "And the captain cheerful as his wont."

  "Ay, well so soon as all these matters were settled fairly, youpromised"--

  "Oh sooth, good lad, stand not gaping there and minding me of lastwinter's snow and last summer's roses! Go and call the captain and theelder to their breakfast while I see to the dear mother."

  But breakfast was hardly over when Mistress Winslow ran across thestreet to the elder's wife.

  "Lo you now, dear mother," cried she excitedly. "There are three boatsrowing toward the Rock, and in every one of them you may make outwomen's gear, and who knows but Patience and Fear are of the company.All the men have gone down to the Rock, and I am going."

  Out she ran again, and Priscilla quickly moved to the mother's side, butgreat joys do not kill even though they startle, and presently the whitewhite face was raised with a smile almost of heaven illuminating it, andthe dame softly said,--

  "Yes, they have come. I knew it in the night. They have come, butPriscilla thou 'rt none the less my dear and duteous daughter. Now getyou to the Rock with the rest. I shall be well alone."

  "Now is Will Bradford well content; now is comedy ready to tread uponthe heels of tragedy, and funeral dirges to end in marriage chimes,"muttered the captain as he plunged down the steep of Leyden Street, andstood with overcast face and compressed lips watching the boats sweepingmerrily up to the landing.

  In the foremost sat the governor, and close beside him two femalefigures their backs to the shore. On the next thwart Surgeon Fuller, hiswhimsical face for once honestly glad, leaned an elbow on his knee andpeered up into the comely face of Bridget, his young wife, for AgnesCarpenter lay asleep beneath St. Peter's Church in old Leyden town. Buther sister Juliana had come with her husband, George Morton, and theirfive children, Patience already a winsome lass of fifteen, soon to marryJohn Faunce and become mother of the last ruling Elder of PlymouthChurch.

  Later on, two more of these fair Carpenter girls were to come over tothe home of their sister Alice: Priscilla, who married William Wright,one of the joyous passengers of the Fortune; and Mary, of whom theChronicles say that she died "a godly old maid" in her sister's home.

  Pardon the interlude, but there is something very fascinating in thestory of this family of five beautiful girls so eagerly sought inmarriage by the best men of the colony, and of her who was the flower ofall and yet died "a godly old maid."

  The governor's boat was at the Rock, and willing hands on shore caughtat the rope thrown from the bows, and dragged her up so that thepassengers could step out dry shod. Standish drew back a little, andwith folded arms stood watching the debarkation. Last of all cameBradford and the two ladies he had escorted.

  "So that is Mistress Alice Carpenter Southworth, is it," muttered thesoldier grasping a handful of his ruddy beard. "Well, it is a winsomedame and a gentle; I wonder not that Will hath"--

  But the calm comment ended abruptly in an exclamation of incredulity andpleasure, for when Mistress Southworth stood safely upon the strand,Bradford turned and gave his hand to her companion, a girl of some fouror five and twenty years old, with one of those rounded and supplefigures which combine strength and delicacy, endurance and elasticity,and are very slow in yielding to the attacks of Time. A demure hood tiedunder the chin framed a round face, whose firm fair skin had defied thetarnish of the sea, and only gained a somewhat warmer glow in cheek andlip than its native tone. Little tendrils of sunny brown hair pushedtheir laughing way from beneath the edge of the hood and curled joyouslyto the fingers of the toying wind. Straight dark brows and longeyelashes of the same deep tint gave character to the face, and shaded apair of eyes whose beauty has stamped itself upon every generation ofthis woman's descendants. Large, and peculiarly opened, these eyes wereof a clear violet blue, but with pupils whose frequent dilatation gavesuch range of tint and expression, and such extraordinary brilliancythat many were found to insist that the eyes themselves were black,while others vowed that no such intensity of blue had ever been seen inhuman orbs before. But neither in the shape, nor the color, nor thebrilliancy, nor the pathetic curve of the upper lid, did the wonderfulbeauty of these eyes abide; it was a fascination, a compelling power intheir regard; the power of appeal or of assurance, of love or wrath, ofpromise or of trust, that dwelt in their depths, and leaped or stolethence bending to their service the will of all who gazed steadfastlyupon them. Weapons more dangerous in a woman's hands than was Gideon theSword, in the hands of the C
aptain of Plymouth.

  As their owner lightly leaping from the gunwale of the boat alightedupon the Rock, these eyes sought and rested merrily upon Myles'wonder-stricken face, while a joyous smile illuminated the features andshowed bright and pretty teeth.

  "Barbara!" exclaimed the captain, leaping down from the hillock where hehad so unsympathetically posted himself to observe the landing.

  "Yes, Barbara," returned a blithe voice. "Come all this way to lookafter her cousin, who cared not to come so far as the ship to greether."

  "But how was I to know thou wert coming, lass? Ever and always at thineold trick of laying me in some blunder! Well, thou 'rt welcome, Bab,welcome as flowers in May." And seizing the round face between his twohands Myles pressed a hearty salute upon either cheek.

  "And Captain," broke in Bradford's well pleased voice, "let me bring youto the notice of Mistress Southworth, in whose matronly company yourcousin has journeyed."

  A fair and gentle English face, albeit not without a quietdetermination in its lines, was turned upon the soldier as AliceSouthworth held out her hand saying,--

  "And greatly beholden am I to Mistress Standish for her companionship. Iknow not quite how we could have borne some of our discomfiture had notshe cheered and upheld us as she did."

  "Ay, 't is a way the wench hath of old," replied the captain gayly. "Imind me of a home across the seas where one declared that naught butBarbara's care kept her in life at all. But in good sooth, girl, whydidst not warn me of thy coming?"

  "I would fain take thee by surprise, cousin, and methinks I have."

  "A total, an utter surprise."

  "We had fared but ill here in the colony had yon sachem surprised theeas effectually, Myles," laughed the governor as the little party climbedThe Street, a long procession of jocund men, women, and childrenstreaming after them, the joy of reunion and the flood of lovinggreetings sweeping away the conventional barriers wherein theSeparatists attempted to imprison Nature.

  "Ah! There are the elder's girls!" said Bradford, as they halted beforehis gate and looked back upon the busy street.

  "Yes, Fear and Patience, sweet maids both of them," replied Alice.

  "And those five merry Warren girls have found their father," saidBarbara. "But he looks not over strong."

  "No," replied the governor sadly. "He hath not grudged both to spend andto be spent for the common weal, and glad am I that his wife hath cometo restrain his zeal. But come in, come in, dear friends, and MistressEaton, who cares for me and my house until I can purvey me anotherhousekeeper, will make you welcome."

  "I would not say nay to some breakfast, nor I think would you, maidBarbara, eh?" laughed Alice, and the governor's face clouded.

  "I fear me there is but sorry cheer to set before you, dear friends,"said he. "Mistress Eaton warned me last night that a few clams were allshe had, or could compass, in her larder."

  "Something was told aboard of a famine in the place," said Barbaraquietly, "and I fancied it could do no harm to put some provant leftover of my stores into a bag and carry it ashore. If none wanted it Icould leave it hid, and--but here it is--the bag, Myles?"

  "What, this sack I have tugged up the hill? All this, provision?"

  "Ay, for the cook gave me a good bit of boiled beef, and a hen to boot."

  "Beef!" exclaimed the captain involuntarily, but in a tone of suchamazed delight that Barbara's eyes dwelt upon him in pity and wonder.

  "Myles! Thou dost not mean that thou hast been actually a-hungered!"said she. "Oh Alice, they are starving."

  "Starving!" echoed Alice in the same tone of dismay. "Oh Will!"

  "Nay, nay, nay!" protested the governor with a somewhat hollow laugh."We have not feasted of late, perhaps, and the word beef hath a strangesound in our ears, since no meat save a little wild game hath been seenamong us for a year or more, but still, thank God, we are well andhearty"--

  "Well and hearty!" repeated Alice Southworth. "Look at him, Barbara;look at his cheeks, his temples, look at that hand, all as one with theskeleton in the museum of Leyden. Oh Barbara, to think that we shouldfind them starving after all!"

  "Better starving than starved," replied Barbara calmly. "And if thegovernor will give me warrant, and this same Mistress Eaton will lend meher aid, I will soon set forth a table that shall make hungry men'shearts leap within them."

  "There, Will," exclaimed Alice generously. "That is the sort of maid sheis, never stopping to lament and wring her hands as silly I do, but everlooking for the way to mend the evil, and finding it, too."

  Dame Eaton, whom we have known as Lois, maid to Mistress Carver, but nowmarried to Francis Eaton and promoted on her marriage to be thegovernor's housekeeper, soon made her appearance, and the three womenwere not long in setting forth a breakfast whereunto the governorinvited as many of his neighbors as the table could accommodate, andover which he offered a thanksgiving, glowing with loving gratitude toHim who giveth all.