the simple monk died the whole countryside
mourned, and hundreds came to look for the last time on the quiet face
in the rude coffin.

A great duke walked bare-headed after that coffin, and one of the most
noted brothers of the church spoke the last words of blessing to the
weeping people.

After his death, it was remembered how sweet had been his little gifts,
and the villagers said: "Let us, too, give gifts to our friends on the
good Valentine's birthday." So ever since has the pretty custom been
carried out, and on St. Valentine's day we send our friends little
tokens of remembrance to say we love them.

THE FIRST THANKSGIVING

It is nearly three hundred years since the first Thanksgiving
Day. Though we have even more to be grateful for, I think that there are
not many of us who feel quite so thankful as the little handful of
people who set apart the first Thanksgiving Day.

There were not very many of them, just one little village in a big
forest land, and by the edge of a great ocean. Here, on the map, is
where they lived. It is on the north-eastern shores of the United States
and is called Plymouth. The people I am telling you about gave it that
name when they came to it, nearly two years before they had their first
Thanksgiving Day. It was the name of the last town they had seen in
England. Here, on the map, is the English Plymouth, and you see what a
long trip they had in their little vessel, called the _Mayflower_, to
their new home.

You still wonder why they travelled so far to make new homes for
themselves. It was because they wanted to worship God in their own way
that they left England. They were not afraid of the long voyage and all
its hardships; for they felt sure they were doing as God wished them to
do. They arrived safely, too, and built their little village by the
sea--the new Plymouth. One of the first buildings they put up was a
little log church.

The first year was very hard for everybody. The winter was colder than
any they had ever known in England, and their houses were small and
poorly built. They could not get any letters or news from their friends
in England for many months. Food was not scarce, for there was always
plenty of game and fish. But it was such a change from their old way of
living that many people became ill, and in the spring there were many
graves. But the worst thing about the new land was the Indians. These
English people were afraid of them--and with good reas