ance, and
for his pains receiving a snub that made him wince again, for Priscilla
coldly replied,--

"They say they came nigh bringing a Jack in the Fortune, but had no room
for him; so thou mayst take his place, and fetch me a bucket of water
from the spring. There's no mighty difference betwixt Jack and John."

CHAPTER XXIX.

KEEPING CHRISTMAS.

And now began a new epoch in the life of the colony. The passengers of
the Fortune, thirty-five in number, although nominally of the same
belief and manners as the Mayflower Pilgrims, were in effect a new
element which, in spite of the generous efforts of the new-comers, did
not readily assimilate with the sober and restrained tone natural to men
who had suffered and struggled and conquered at such terrible loss to
themselves, as had the first comers.

A score of gay young fellows upon whom life sat so lightly that they
cared not how they periled it, was no doubt a valuable acquisition to
the fighting force of the colony, and almost upon the day of their
arrival the Captain enrolled, divided, and began to train them, forming
four companies of twelve men each, for some of the larger boys of the
Mayflower were now enlisted, and this force of fifty men was at least
once in every week led over to the Training Green across the brook, and
there inspected, manoeuvred, marched and counter-marched, disciplined
in prompt obedience and rapid movement; until the birds of the air who
watched from the neighboring forest should have carried a warning to
their co-aborigines, the Narragansetts, the Neponsets, the Namaskets,
and the Manomets, not yet convinced, spite of the late warning, that the
white man was their Fate against which it was but bitter defeat to
struggle. The training over, each company in turn escorted the captain
to his own quarters, and fired a salute of honor as he dismissed them.

"'T is not for mine own glory, Will, as thou who knowest me will
believe," said Standish, while the governor and he smoking a placid pipe
on the evening of the first training, discussed the events of the day.
"But in matters military even more than civil, it needs that one man
should be at the head, and command the respectful observance as well as
the obedience of those under his command. It is not Myles Standish whom
the soldiers of Plymouth salute as he enters this poor hut, but the
Captain of the Colony's forces."

"Ay, ay, Myles, I know thy humility," replied Bradford with his