of the Plantation?" was the
daily cry, and daily Hobomok climbed the great tulip-tree on the crest
of Watson's Hill and swept the horizon line with eyes keener than any
white man's.

"The Lord abaseth us for our sins," declared the elder. "Call a solemn
assembly, proclaim a fast, let us entreat our God to have mercy, and our
Lord to pardon. Who can tell but He yet may turn and have compassion,
and spare the remnant of His people. Even as a servant looketh to the
hand of his master even so let us wait upon our God, beseeching that He
spare, that He pardon, that He restore us, who for our sins are
appointed to die."

So spake the elder after the evening prayers of a day even more
exhausting than its predecessors, and Myles Standish, leaning against
the wall for very weakness, muttered,--

"Nay, what sin have these women and children wrought? What odds between
a God like that and the Shietan of the salvages? Nay, Elder, thou hast
not bettered the faith my mother lived and died by."

But the fast was appointed for the next day, which fell on a Thursday,
and as the sun sprang up with even an added blaze of pitiless heat, he
saw a mournful procession winding up the hill to the Fort, now so
completed as to offer a large lower room for purposes of devotion or of
refuge, while the ordnance mounted on the roof gained a wider range, and
presented a more formidable aspect.

At the head walked Elder Brewster, but the shadowy form of Mary his wife
reclined in the old chair set beside the window, whence she could watch
the procession she was unable to join except in spirit. Then came the
Governor and the Captain, Allerton and Winslow, Warren and Fuller,
Hopkins and Howland, Alden and Browne, and the rest of the glorious
band, the least of whom has his name written in the Libro d'Oro of the
men posterity delighteth to honor. After the men came the women, meek
and gentle, yet strong and courageous, and the children, poor little
heroes and heroines, involuntary martyrs like the Holy Innocents of
Bethlehem.

"Get thee to the roof, Hobomok," ordered the captain, "and say the
prayers the elder hath so painfully taught thee; but mind me, lad, keep
thine eyes upon the horizon and watch for the answer, whether it be a
sail, or whether it be a rain cloud. Shalt play the part of Elijah's
servant, and the elder is the very moral of the stern old prophet."

No morsel of food, no drop of drink, had passed the lips of that wan
company sinc