Ah, Miles Standish, rough captain, nowhere do you stand out
braver than against that background! And Rose, thy wife, Rose Standish
too must die, ere ever she comes to the home on the shore.
40. The winter wears on. The Indians come to investigate, later to
treat with the English. Since there are few well enough to build, the
little settlement, snowbound between the ocean and the forest, grows
but slowly. Sometimes death comes twice and thrice in a day, and the
whole scene is a funeral and the ocean one black grave. Yet they bear
it all patiently, silently: it is the hand of the Lord. Priscilla
Mullins sees her father, her mother, her brother, buried in the
heartless sea, and stands in the New World alone. "God is our refuge
and strength, a very present help in trouble." Priscilla can bear it
as a brave woman will, and, later, finds protection in the strong arm
of John Alden. Mr. Winslow watches the waves close over the form of
his wife. "My life is spent with sorrow and my years with sighing,...
but I trusted in thee, O Lord; my times are in thy hand." He can
bear it as a brave man can, and not many months after finds comfort in
taking to himself the widow of Mr. White; the two knit together by
common sorrow and danger. Elizabeth Tilley loses father and mother.
John Rigdale and Alice, his wife, die together. Thomas Tinker, wife,
and child, all die there in the ship.
Pages:
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242