the Common house, the only one except the hospital
really finished, and sometimes cooking for themselves such food as they
could lay hands upon, for the house, unlike some of the others, already
boasted a chimney laid up of sticks and clay, and showed a generous
fireplace in the larger or living room which, with two little
sleeping-rooms and a loft, comprised the whole accommodation.

Upon this little home so hopefully begun, so neglected during the last
ten days, Myles gazed long and wistfully, smiling sadly as he saw Alden
come out and look up and down the street for him, finally going to seek
him in the Common house, a substantial structure some twenty feet
square, built of hewn oaken logs, fitted together as closely as
possible, and the crevices stopped with clay, which freely washed out in
stormy weather.

The roof, like all the rest, was covered with thatch formed of dried
reeds and grasses, and the windows were filled with oiled linen instead
of glass, still an article of costly luxury. Above the Common house
stood the building which the increasing mortality of the colony had
demanded as a hospital, and below it was the storehouse, where most of
the common stock of goods was collected, although some of the passengers
and their possessions still remained on board the brig, where Jones gave
them but scant hospitality or kindness.

Folding his arms more closely as the chill wind of February swept in
from seaward, Standish gazed upon all these objects as if they for the
first time attracted his attention, and then, as the lifting fog
revealed the distant landscape, he turned and fixedly regarded Captain's
Hill rising in its bold isolation to the north. Long he gazed, and then,
slightly shaking his head, stepped down from the beam and paced about
the little enclosure, half unconsciously examining the work of platform
and parapet, and following with a gunner's eye the range of the pieces
yet unmounted; pausing longest before the eastern front, he marked with
satisfaction how well the minion there to be placed would guard the
landing and sweep the solitary street, and even knelt to look along its
imaginary barrel.

Rising he brushed the soil from his knees with almost a smile,
muttering,--

"Ay, lad, thou 'rt needed, thou 'rt needed, and he who is needed has no
right to desert his post."

But suddenly the smile faded, for as he turned to leave the Fort his
eyes fell upon Cole's Hill, where but a few rods from the