r it bore wonderful fruit for the kind
children.

XXVI

THE FIRST NEW ENGLAND CHRISTMAS[R]

G. L. STONE AND M. G. FICKETT

IT WAS a warm and pleasant Saturday--that twenty-third of December,
1620. The winter wind had blown itself away in the storm of the day
before, and the air was clear and balmy.

The people on board the _Mayflower_ were glad of the pleasant day. It
was three long months since they had started from Plymouth, in England,
to seek a home across the ocean. Now they had come into a harbour that
they named New Plymouth, in the country of New England.

Other people called these voyagers Pilgrims, which means wanderers. A
long while before, the Pilgrims had lived in England; later they made
their home with the Dutch in Holland; finally they had said good-bye to
their friends in Holland and in England, and had sailed away to America.

There were only one hundred and two of the Pilgrims on the _Mayflower_,
but they were brave and strong and full of hope. Now the _Mayflower_ was
the only home they had; yet if this weather lasted they might soon have
warm log-cabins to live in. This very afternoon the men had gone ashore
to cut down the large trees.

The women of the _Mayflower_ were busy, too. Some were spinning, some
knitting, some sewing. It was so bright and pleasant that Mistress Rose
Standish had taken out her knitting and had gone to sit a little while
on deck. She was too weak to face rough weather, and she wanted to enjoy
the warm sunshine and the clear salt air. By her side was Mistress
Brewster, the minister's wife. Everybody loved Mistress Standish and
Mistress Brewster, for neither of them ever spoke unkindly.

The air on deck would have been warm even on a colder day, for in one
corner a bright fire was burning. It would seem strange now, would it
not, to see a fire on the deck of a vessel? But in those days, when the
weather was pleasant, people on shipboard did their cooking on deck.

The Pilgrims had no stoves, and Mistress Carver's maid had built this
fire on a large hearth covered with sand. She had hung a great kettle on
the crane over the fire, where the onion soup for supper was now
simmering slowly.

Near the fire sat a little girl, busily playing and singing to herself.
Little Remember Allerton was only six years old, but she liked to be
with Hannah, Mistress Carver's maid. This afternoon Remember had been
watching Hannah build the fire and make the soup. Now the littl