s of those who built it and lived
in it, stood revealed a monument in its shining beauty before it
passed on.

CHAPTER IV

FOREFATHERS' DAY

One does not need to seek the brow of Cole's Hill very early on
Forefathers' Day to see the star of morning rise and shine upon
Plymouth. It marks the passing of one of the four longest nights
of the year, those of the four days before Christmas, a memorable
period for all Americans, for during it the Pilgrim Fathers came
to Plymouth. According to the best authorities the exploring party
set foot on the famous rock on Monday, Dec. 21 (new style). But
the ship herself did not enter the harbor for five days. Friday,
the 18th, the explorers reached Clark's Island after dark and
spent the night most miserably, though it was next door to a
miracle that they got there alive and no doubt they were thankful
for that. How they battled by Manomet Point in the half gale and
high sea, the night already upon them and the harbor unknown to
any aboard, their rudder gone and their mast "broken in three
places," we know from Bradford's graphic description. On Saturday
they rested on their island and dried their clothes and their
gunpowder. On Sunday they prayed and otherwise kept the Sabbath as
was their want. On Monday they went ashore on the mainland, found
the situation desirable, and struck boldly across the bay to the
Mayflower inside the hook of the Cape, to tell the news.

So the first of the Forefathers set foot on Plymouth soil on the
21st of December, according to the revised calendar. But the
Mayflower herself did not enter the harbor till five days later.

"On the 15th of December," says Bradford (on the 25th as we now
reckon it, though ten days before the England they had left behind
would celebrate Christmas), "they weighed anchor to go to the
place they had discovered, and came within two leagues of it, but
were fain to bear up again, but the 16th day the wind became fair
and they arrived safely in the harbor and afterward took a better
view of the place and resolved where to pitch their dwellings and
the 25th day began to erect the first house for common use, to
receive them and their goods.

*****

Forefathers' Day is rightly set, then, on the 21st, though we have
really an all-winter landing of the Pilgrims, the ship remaining
in the harbor and being more or less their refuge until the 5th of
April, 1621. In some respects the place of their landing has
vastly c