and
drew up an agreement in writing for the government of the settlement.
They signed the agreement, and then chose John Carver for governor.

[Footnote 5: Plymouth (Plim'uth).]

65. Washing-day; what Standish and his men found on the Cape.--On
the first Monday after they had reached the cape, all the women went
on shore to wash, and so Monday has been kept as washing-day in New
England ever since. Shortly after that, Captain Myles Standish, with
a number of men, started off to see the country. They found some
Indian corn buried in the sand; and a little further on a young man
named William Bradford, who afterward became governor, stepped into
an Indian deer-trap. It jerked him up by the leg in a way that must
have made even the Pilgrims smile.

[Illustration: AN INDIAN DEER-TRAP.]

[Illustration: BRADFORD CAUGHT.]

66. Captain Standish and his men set sail in a boat for a blue hill
in the west, and find Plymouth Rock; Plymouth Harbor; landing from
the _Mayflower_.--On clear days the people on board the _Mayflower_,
anchored in Cape Cod Harbor, could see a blue hill, on the mainland,
in the west, about forty miles away. To that blue hill Standish and
some others determined to go. Taking a sail-boat, they started off.
A few days later they passed the hill which the Indians called
Manomet,[6] and entered a fine harbor. There, on December 21st,
1620,--the shortest day in the year,--they landed on that famous
stone which is now known all over the world as Plymouth Rock.

Standish, with the others, went back to the _Mayflower_ with a good
report. They had found just what they wanted,--an excellent harbor
where ships from England could come in; a brook of nice
drinking-water; and last of all, a piece of land that was nearly free
from trees, so that nothing would hinder their planting corn early
in the spring. Captain John Smith of Virginia[7] had been there
before them, and had named the place Plymouth on his map of New
England. The Pilgrims liked the name, and so made up their minds to
keep it. The _Mayflower_ soon sailed for Plymouth, and the Pilgrims
set to work to build the log cabins of their little settlement.

[Illustration: THE _Mayflower_ IN PLYMOUTH HARBOR.]

[Footnote 6: Manomet (Man'o-met).]

[Footnote 7: See paragraph 46.]

67. Sickness and death.--During that winter nearly half the Pilgrims
died. Captain Standish showed himself to be as good a nurse as he
was a soldier. He, with Governor Carv