cross of Merrie England; 't is the home
colors, boy!"

But already the eager eyes in the Town Square had recognized the flag,
and Standish lapsing from the martinet into the exile waved Gideon above
his head shouting,--

"'T is our own flag, men; 't is the red cross of Old England! Three
cheers boys, three cheers for the dear old flag! Now then!"

And the glad shout arose, and again and again, not only from the bearded
throats of men, but in the shrill treble of boys, and the dainty voices
of girls, who just out of sight watched as women do, when life and honor
hang in the balance.

"Oh Mary, Mary maid, why art thou crying! Silly wench"--

"Nay, but thou 'rt crying thyself, Priscilla! Nay, now thou 'rt
laughing!"

"To think how John Alden turned white as any maid when the good news
came!" sobbed Priscilla running in to fling her arms around Dame
Brewster, who sat with folded hands and rapt face praying to the God of
battles.

"Oh mother, mother, they all are safe, and 't is an English ship.
Belike, Fear and Patience and their brother are aboard."

"Nay, dear maid, nay, be not so carried away. If indeed God sendeth my
children"--

But the mere thought of such joy was too much for the self-control the
poor mother so struggled for, and when the elder hastened into the house
he found his wife weeping for joy upon Priscilla's heaving breast.

"Nay then, wife, nay then, doest thou well?--and yet mine own eyes might
but too easily rain with gratitude. Dame, wife I say, nay then--let us
pray that in all things His will be done."

And in less than an hour Mary Brewster was sobbing afresh in the
stalwart embrace of her eldest son Jonathan, a young fellow of
five-and-thirty, who full of health and courage was come to be the staff
of her old age, and to bring news of the fair sisters who would come
anon.

For this was the Fortune, a little ship of fifty-five tons, dispatched
by the Adventurers in London to carry over some of the colonists
disappointed of a passage in the Mayflower, but principally to convey
Robert Cushman, who came pledged to obtain the consent of the Pilgrims
to a contract more favorable to their English friends than that they
were disposed to undertake. With him came his son Thomas, a boy of
fourteen, whom his father upon his hasty return in the Fortune left
behind under charge of the governor, to whom he subsequently wrote, "I
pray you care for my son as for your own;" and so well did Bradford
t