ambition, of
weariness, of hauteur are foreshadowed upon his face; already Time with
his light indelible pencil has faintly traced the furrows he by and by
will plow that all who run may read.

Perhaps the least change of all is that upon the captain's face, for
before ever he landed on the Rock full twenty years of a soldier's life
had set those firm lips, and steadied those marvelous eyes, and
impressed upon every line of the deep bronzed face the air of the
vigilant commander who was both born and bred for the post he fills so
thoroughly. If any change, perhaps there is a softening one, for those
keen eyes have looked so often upon misery and need, and so little upon
bloodshed in these three last years, that they have gained somewhat of
tenderness, somewhat of human sympathy; and the look that dying men and
women have strained their glazing eyes to see to the last, is not so far
from the surface as once it was. But the governor is speaking,--

"Yes, my friends, I will confess to feeling more than a little uneasy
over the matter. This party whom our sometime friend Weston hath sent
over to settle at our very doors as it were, and to steal our trade with
the Indians, and so hold us from paying off our debt to the
Adventurers"--

"With whom he was still to abide as our Advocate," growled Standish.

"Ay. He hath doubtless served us a sorry turn by not only dividing
himself from the Adventurers, but setting up a rival trading-post of his
own," remarked Winslow.

"And worse than that is this news Squanto brings in to-day," resumed the
governor. "I mean the dealings of those new-comers with the Indians."

"Yes, they carry themselves like both knaves and fools, and will
presently find their own necks in the noose," said Standish rapping the
ashes out of his pipe with such force as to break it.

"But worse again than that," suggested Winslow quietly, "is the danger
they bring upon us. Hobomok warneth me that there is a wide discontent
growing among the red men, springing from the conduct of these men at
Weymouth as they call it. The Neponsets have suffered robbery, and
insult, and outrage at their hands, and both the Massachusetts on the
one hand and the Pokanokets on the other are in sympathy with them. Then
you will see, brethren, that Canonicus with his Narragansetts, who
already hath sent us his cartel of defiance, will make brief alliance
with Massasoit, and all will combine to drive every white man from the
coun