Mr.
Billington being gone to the shore, his son John, with the family gun
well loaded, took occasion to try his skill by shooting it off in the
cabin; "yet, by God's mercy, no harm was done!"
38. Midwinter, and provisions low. Seven already buried in the ocean.
Sickness setting in with more severity, women and children to be
somehow cared for, two tiny babies to be shielded from all harm, their
only home the inhospitable shore. No time to lose! The 16th they began
to build the first house, and so was planted Plymouth.
39. In that dead winter time sprang Plymouth. Cold for the seed of the
Mayflower, but Mayflower's seed did not easily die. The houses went
up, one after another, and as it became possible the company on the
ship were transferred to the land. The ship, indeed, became more and
more undesirable: sickness prevailed; the sailors did not escape, but
dragged about or tossed in their beds in fierce impatience, and, of
the Puritans, half their number died before the end of March. Elder
Brewster and strong Miles Standish, with half-a-dozen others who were
left in health, toiled night and day, cooking, building fires, making
beds, washing clothes, adapting their masculine hands to women's
offices as they dressed and undressed the feverish patients, cared for
the babies whose mothers lay ill, heard the children say their
prayers.
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