Standish of Standish: A Story of the Pilgrims
Page 37
CHAPTER XXXVI.
MARRIAGE BELLS.
"And now, Governor, we have to billet all these new-comers as best wemay. Six-and-ninety names the captain of the Anne reports on his roster,and that fairly doubles the population of Plymouth. Where shall webestow them all?"
"Why, Captain, you know that many of our men expecting their wives andchildren have built housen and now will occupy them; and for the rest, Iam minded, if you will have me, to impose myself upon you and Alden, andleave mine own house to Mistress Southworth and your cousin. Then, asthe elder's daughters now have come, Priscilla Molines, whom my dameknoweth and loveth well, and Mary Chilton and Elizabeth Tilley can allfind room here also, and the rest we will dispose of among the otherfamilies. Mayhap for a while the young men may sleep at the Fort."
"Nay, Governor, we'll have no rantipoles at the Fort meddling and makingamong the ammunition, and playing tricks with the guns. Alden and youand I and Howland, and some other of the ancients, will swing ourhammocks at the Fort if you will, and my house may be turned into abillet for the bachelors, until we can help them to knock up housen forthemselves."
"So be it, comrade, and yet 't is hardly worth while to make greatchanges or fatigues until"--
"Until?"--
"Until some among us are wed, Myles."
"Why, truly yes. I had forgot, and yet I have heard the jingle ofmarriage bells in thy voice since ever yon ship rounded Manomet. Howsoon will it be, Will?"
"So soon as my dame agreeth," replied Bradford contentedly. "At all oddsbefore the Anne returneth. We have magistrates enow among us, however,for Master Oldham and Master Hatherly both carry the king's patent asjustices; and this Master Lyford who cometh in Oldham's train ispreacher in the Church of England."
"Ha! Say you so, Will? One of the 'hireling priests' of such noisomeodour in the nostrils of thy friends of the stricter sort at Leyden!"
"Nay, Captain, but you will remember that Pastor Robinson did receivemembers of England's Church to the Lord's Table, and did counsel us tolive in brotherly love and communion with them."
"And so fell into disfavor with his old friends the Brownists," remarkedStandish carelessly. "Well, 't is all one to me, who am no churchmember, and deny not due respect to the old faith of mine house. And youwill be wed anon, Will?"
"Ay, and we will have your Barbara to stay with us until she findsanother home, if you and she consent. Dame Alice loves her passingwell."
"'T is a good wench and a comfortable one," replied Standish wellpleased. "Had Rose lived, or had Priscilla said me yea, I had takenBarbara under mine own roof; but now I must wait until she makes herchoice of the swains that soon will come a-wooing, and then she and herhusband shall come to me."
"Ay," returned Bradford musingly, and checking upon his lips the smilethat danced in his eyes. "Thy plans are ever wisely laid, Myles."
Turning into his own house Bradford found Alice with her wimple andscarf on just about to leave it.
"Whither away, mistress?" asked he gayly.
"Only to breathe a mouthful of fresh air, Master Governor. I have beenso long ashipboard that four walls seem a prison to me. Mayhap I'll takepassage back again with good Master Pierce."
"Mayhap thou 'lt do naught of the sort. I have thee now, and I'll notlet thee go, as I did sometime in Leyden."
"Thou didst anger me sore, Will, when thou 'dst not close with that goodman's offer of half his business, though it was but a merchant's. And myfather crying up Edward Southworth"--
"Nay, Alice, we'll not go pulling open old wounds to see if they behealed. I would not, I could not do violence to my English name andblood and become a Dutch trader though it were to gain thy hand, nor didI think thou wouldst in thine anger go so far--but there, sweetheart,we'll say no more on 't, now or ever. God has been exceeding gracious inbringing us once more together, and we will not be ungrateful. Thy boysshall find a father in me, Alice, and should Elder May give me again mylittle John"--
"Nay, the boy is well with his grandsire in Leyden, and my Constant andThomas must abide with their father's folk for a while. They would notpart from me unless I left the boys for a year or two."
"And still thou wouldst come, Alice."
"Dost mind what words Ruth said to Naomi, Will?"
"Truly do I, Alice."
And as the two long-parted lovers looked deep into each other's eyesthere needed no further speech to show that the long winter was over andthe time of the singing of birds had come.
Two weeks from the arrival of the Anne all Plymouth put on festal gearand merry faces. Good cheer abounded in place of famine, for thenew-comers were well stored with provision, and although this was notturned into the common stock, those who had promising crops--and sincethe Fast Day there had been no stint of rain, and the corn promisedmarvelously well--could always obtain dry provisions for the promise ofa share in the green meat when it should be gathered.
And fitting it was that Plymouth should keep holiday, for not only wasit the governor's marriage morn, but Priscilla Molines, whom all hertownsfolk loved, was to become John Alden's wife; and as the two friendscould not be parted, Mary Chilton had promised upon the day ofPriscilla's marriage to give her hand to John Winslow, one of theFortune's pilgrims and brother of Edward and Gilbert. Finally JohnHowland so strongly pleaded his cause before the elder and his wife thatthey consented to give him Elizabeth Tilley to wife, young though shewas, and to allow him to take her to the pretty cottage he had builtupon The Street, next to Stephen Hopkins's substantial house on thecorner of The Street and the King's Highway. John Alden also had built acottage between the captain's house and the governor's; and Eaton withhis wife Lois was to share a house with Peter Browne, who had manfullyassumed the charge of Widow Martha Ford and her three children.
Christian Penn, a stalwart lass, passenger of the Anne, was to make oneof the governor's family, and literally to be "help" to his wife in theduties of the household, while Mary Becket consented to fill the sameplace in Edward Winslow's home.
Barbara, cordially invited both by Alice Southworth and by Priscilla tobecome their perpetual guest, laughingly accepted both invitations,saying to Priscilla,--
"When I find too much pepper in thy soup, Pris, I'll e'en go cool mytongue with Dame Alice's comfitures; and when I fancy one new-wed pairwere as content without me, I'll e'en go and inflict myself upont' other."
"And the captain will keep house with only Hobomok," said Priscilladubiously.
"Nay, Kit Conant is to 'bide with them, and do certain service, and Ishall still be in and out," said Barbara briskly. "Like enough the mostthey eat will be of my brewing. We shall do well enow for the captain.But, Priscilla, what ailed thee not to wed him, since his comfort sitsso nigh thy heart?"
"Why, 't is but Christian to pity them who are in need, yet none can wedwith more than one man at a time, and from the first I knew that JohnAlden was the one for me. Wed him thyself, Barbara, and send Kit Conantabout his business."
A sudden color surged all over Barbara's face, and the wonderful eyesshot out an angry spark, but after a moment she quietly said,--
"Myles and I have ever been more like brother and sister than cousins.His mother was all as one with mine own."
"Ay, and so it is. Yes, yes, I see," said Priscilla hurriedly, but whenBarbara had left her she stood for many minutes drumming on the table,and thoughtfully gazing through the open door at the blue wonder of thesea.
And now the wedding day had come, a glorious golden summer day, and someof the older folk, whose habits of early life held rigidly to the soilsince planted anew to a Separatist crop, remembered that it was LammasDay. One of these was Elizabeth, Master Warren's new-come wife, and asshe looked abroad in the early morning, she sighed a bit and said,--
"A year agone, Richard, I looked upon another guess sort of scene thanthis. The church bells were ringing and the people trooping in, and manywas the goodwife who brought her loaf baked of the first-fruit wheat tooffer it for the parson's table if n
ot for the Communion"--
"Nay wife, nay, remember Lot's wife," chided the husband, already so farupon his way to that abode of Light where shall be no Separatism and nouncharity.
As all the world would fain be present at one or the other of the fourmarriages, it was concluded that they should be held in the open air,and the captain with much enthusiasm directed the spreading of an opentent, or, more properly, a canopy upon the greensward stretching acrossthe King's Highway from Bradford's house to Hopkins's.
This completed, and the military band paraded ready to salute thegovernor upon his arrival, Standish stood aside, wiping his brow, andlooking jovially about him at the tables already spread with the weddingfeast, which was thriftily to take the place of the villagers' ordinarydinner.
"A cheerful and a refreshing season, Captain," said a staid voice at hiselbow.
"Ay," replied Standish briefly and with something of the good-humor gonefrom his face, for he had no great love for Isaac Allerton, Assistant ofthe Governor, and one of the principal men of the colony, though he was.
"Methinks you and I might be principals instead of spectators at somesuch solemnity, and offend no law of God or man."
"I know no law against your being wed if it pleases you, MasterAllerton," replied the soldier briefly.
"No--no, as you justly say, no law, Captain, and truth to tell I had itin my mind to speak to you this morning"--
"To me, to me!" exclaimed the captain, wheeling round and staring at thesmooth face and narrow figure of the assistant. "Dost fancy that I am apretty maid hid within a buff jerkin?"
"Ha! ha! Our good captain still must have his joke. Nay then, in soberearnest my dear brother, your cousin, Mistress Barbara Standish, dothmuch commend herself to my mind as a discreet and godly maiden, notablein household ways, and of a mild and biddable nature. I fain would haveher to wife, Standish, if I may do so with your consent."
"Nay now, Master Allerton, your eyes are keener after a good chance fortrucking than ever a pair in the colony, and I'm not saying that thegovernor could find a better assistant in his weighty affairs of State,but you've no more eye for a gentlewoman's good qualities than I havefor a peddler's. 'Mild and biddable,' forsooth! Those virtues were leftout when they brewed the Standish blood, Master Allerton, and courageand honor and some other trifles thrown in to make amends. Why man,should you wed Barbara Standish and raise a hand upon her as I've seenyou do upon your daughters, woman-grown, I'd not answer but she'd haveyour life's blood for it; and if you bade her stint the measure of thecorn she sold to your neighbors, she'd quit your roof and you, beforeyou could say whiskerando! No, no, Master Allerton, best not try to mateyourself with a Standish. No luck would come on 't I promise you."
"Methinks, Captain Standish," replied the councilor smoothly, althoughhis pale face had taken a livid cast harmonizing with a green light inhis narrow eyes,--"methinks you take over much upon yourself in this ourland of liberty and God-given rights. Why should you decide soabsolutely for Mistress Standish? Why may not she speak her own mind.She at least has no narrow and ignorant prejudice against me, unlessindeed you have already instilled it into her mind."
"Nay now, Allerton, dost in sober sadness suppose that in meeting mykinswoman after a five years' parting I chose you as my theme ofdiscourse? As for the rest, I lay no constraint upon Mistress Standish.Speak to her if you will and as soon as you will, but tell her all thestory, tell her of your grown children, and of your years"--
"They are no more than yours," sharply interrupted the councilor.
"Did I say they were? Well, speak to her I say--ha, here come thebrides. Now trumpets!"
And as the trumpets blew a joyous fanfare and the drums and fife burstforth in a blithe jargon intended for the good old tune of Haste to theWedding, out from the door of the governor's house came Bradford leadingAlice Southworth, fair and delicate and sweet, yet with a little air ofstate about her, as one who had already known the honors of matronhoodand now was called to become the wife of a ruler. Next came Priscilla,dressed in a fair white gown trimmed with old Flemish lace at whichMistress Winslow looked askance, her rich color a little subdued, and asomewhat tremulous curve to her ripe lips, while the great brown eyeswere filled with a dreamy haze not far from tears. She was wedding theman of her love, but she stood all alone beside him, this brave yettender-hearted Priscilla of ours,--she stood alone, and she thought ofher mother, the mother so loved, so mourned, so near to that faithfulheart to-day.
Then came well-born, well-nurtured John Winslow and Mary Chilton, thefair English May whose sweet blossoms are ever upheld by such a sturdyand healthy stock, ay, and are protected by substantial thorns frommeddling fingers even while its fragrance is graciously shed abroad forall the world to glory in.
And last of all came John Howland, that "lusty yonge man" who on thevoyage had been washed overboard and carried fathoms deep beneath thesea, yet by his courage and endurance survived the ordeal, and lived tofound one of the chiefest Plymouth families. By the hand he ledElizabeth Tilley, a sweet slip of a girl, with true and loving eyes everand anon glancing proudly at the stalwart form of the only man she everloved, and yet never thought to win.
Four noble and comely couple pacing through the grassy street and takingtheir places under the canopy where Elder Brewster, a magistrate, if notan ordained minister, stood beside a little table whereon was laid thecolony's first Record Book brought by the Anne, and now to be used forthe first time, for hitherto the "scanty annals of the poor" settlementhad been kept in Governor Bradford's note-book, now alas lost toposterity.
The simple ceremony was soon over, and as the Separatists deniedthemselves the privilege of a religious service lest some taint ofPapistry might lurk therein, Elder Brewster closed his magisterialoffice with a prayer in which Isaac and Rebecca were not forgotten, andabout which hung a curious flavor of the Church of England service sofamiliar to the elder's youth.
"Priscilla! Mine at last! My very own," whispered John Alden in hisbride's ear as the group broke up and all the world pressed in to offercongratulations.
"There, there, John, if thou hast but just discovered that notable factI'll leave thee to digest it while I go to see that the dinner is servedas it should be."