Mary of Plymouth

by James Otis

Overview

Reproduction of the original: Mary of Plymouth by James Otis

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783732688012
Publisher:	Outlook Verlag
Publication date:	05/23/2018
Pages:	142
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x 0.33(d)

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1 Why This Story Was Written

My name is Mary, and I am setting down all these things about our people here in this new world, hoping some day to send to my dear friend, Hannah, who lives in Scrooby, England, what may really come to be a story, even though the writer of it is only sixteen years old. I have lived in Plymouth since the day our company landed in the Mayflower in 1620, more than eleven years ago.

If Hannah ever really sees this as I have written it, she will, I know, be amused. It is set down on pieces of birch bark and some leaves cut from the book of accounts which Edward Winslow brought with him from the old home.

Hannah will ask why I did not use fair, white paper, and if I am standing by when she does so, I shall tell her that fair, white paper is far too precious in this new world of ours to be used for the pleasure of children.

In the last ship, which came from England, were large packages of white paper for the settlers at Salem, who came over to this wild land eight years after we landed. When I asked my father to buy for me three sheets that I might make a little book, he told me the price would be more for the three sheets than he paid for the two deer skins with which to make me a winter coat.

Of course, I put from my mind all hope of having paper to write on; but these sheets of bark take very well the ink made from elderberries which Mother and I brewed the second winter after our new home was built. The pen is a quill taken from the wing of a wild goose shot by Captain Standish.

Chapter 2 The Leaking Speedwell

Hannah's father must have told her how much trouble we had in getting here. When the first vessel in which we set sail, named the Speedwell, put back to Plymouth in England because of leaking so badly, her master could not have failed to tell the people of Scrooby how all the hundred and two of us, men, women and children, were crowded into the Mayflower.

From the sixth day of September until the eleventh day of November, which is over sixty long, dreary days, we were on the ocean, and then our vessel came into what Captain John Smith had named Cape Cod Bay.

Mother believed, as did the other women, and even we children, that we would go on shore as soon as the Mayflower had come near to the land. However, before many hours were passed, after the anchor had been dropped into the sea, even the youngest of us knew that it could not be.

We were weary with having been on board the vessel so long and had made ourselves believe that as soon as we were arrived in the new world, food in plenty, with good, comfortable homes, would be ours.

Master Brewster, as well as the other men, said that houses must be built before we could leave the ship, and we only needed to go on deck and look about us, to know why this was so. Everywhere, except on the water, were snow and trees. It was a real forest as far as I could see in either direction, and everywhere the cold, white snow was piled in drifts, or blowing like feathers when the wind was high.

So deeply was the land covered that we, who watched the men when they went ashore for the first time to seek out some place whereon to make a village, thought that they had fallen into a hole while stepping off the rocks, because we lost sight of them so soon. Instead of its being an accident, however, we could see that they were floundering in the snow; Master Bradford, whose legs are the shortest, being nearly lost to view.

We waited as patiently as possible for them to come back, though I must confess that Sarah, a girl of about my own age who came aboard the Mayflower at Plymouth when we put back because of the Speedwell's leaking so badly, and I could not keep in check our eagerness to hear from those people in Virginia, who it was said were living in comfort.

Not for many days did we come to realize that the settlers in Virginia were very far away from where we were to land, and to see them we should be forced to take another long voyage in a ship. We had come amidst the snow and the savage Indians, instead of among people from England, as had been planned when we set out on the journey.

Table of Contents

1 Why This Story Was Written
2 The Leaking Speedwell
3 Searching for a Home
4 After the Storm
5 Wash Day
6 Finding the Corn
7 Attacked by the Savages
8 Building Houses
9 Miles Standish
10 The Sick People
11 The New Home
12 Master White and the Wolf
13 The Inside of the House
14 A Chimney without Bricks
15 Building the Fire
16 Master Bradford's Chimney
17 Scarcity of Food
18 A Timely Gift
19 The First Savage Visitor
20 Squanto's Story
21 Living in the Wilderness
22 The Friendly Indians
23 Grinding the Corn
24 A Visit from Massasoit
25 Massasoit's Promise
26 Massasoit's Visit Returned
27 The Big House Burned
28 The Mayflower Leaves Port
29 Setting the Table
30 What and How We Eat
31 Table Rules
32 When the Pilgrim Goes Abroad
33 Making a Dugout
34 Governor Carver's Death
35 William Bradford Chosen Governor
36 Farming in Plymouth
37 Ways of Cooking Indian Corn
38 The Wedding 39 Making Maple Sugar
40 Decorating the Inside of the House
41 Trapping Wolves and Bagging Pigeons
42 Elder Brewster
43 The Visit to Massasoit
44 Keeping the Sabbath Holy
45 Making Clapboards
46 Cooking Pumpkins
47 A New Oven
48 Making Spoons and Dishes
49 The Fort and Meetinghouse
50 The Harvest Festival
51 How to Play Stoolball
52 On Christmas Day
53 When the Fortune Arrived
54 Possibility of Another Famine
55 On Short Allowance
56 A Threatening Message
57 Pine Knots and Candles
58 Tallow from Bushes
59 Wicks for the Candles
60 Dipping the Candles
61 When James Runs Away
62 Evil-Minded Indians
63 Long Hours of Preaching
64 John Alden's Tubs
65 English Visitors
66 Visiting the Neighbors
67 Why More Fish Are Not Taken
68 How Wampum Is Made
69 Ministering to Massasoit
70 The Plot Thwarted
71 The Captain's Indian
72 Ballots of Corn
73 Arrival of the Ann
74 The Little James Comes to Port
75 The New Meetinghouse
76 The Church Service
77 The Tithingmen
78 Master Winslow Brings Home Cows
79 A Real Oven
80 Butter and Cheese
81 The Settlement at Wessagussett
82 The Village of Merry Mount
83 The First School
84 Too Much Smoke
85 School Comforts
86 How the Children Were Punished
87 New Villages 88 Making Ready for a Journey
89 Clothing for the Salem Company
90 Preparing Food for the Journey
91 Before Sailing for Salem
92 Beginning the Journey
93 The Arrival at Salem
94 Sightseeing in Salem
95 Back to Plymouth