again my
little John"--

"Nay, the boy is well with his grandsire in Leyden, and my Constant and
Thomas must abide with their father's folk for a while. They would not
part from me unless I left the boys for a year or two."

"And still thou wouldst come, Alice."

"Dost mind what words Ruth said to Naomi, Will?"

"Truly do I, Alice."

And as the two long-parted lovers looked deep into each other's eyes
there needed no further speech to show that the long winter was over and
the time of the singing of birds had come.

Two weeks from the arrival of the Anne all Plymouth put on festal gear
and merry faces. Good cheer abounded in place of famine, for the
new-comers were well stored with provision, and although this was not
turned into the common stock, those who had promising crops--and since
the Fast Day there had been no stint of rain, and the corn promised
marvelously well--could always obtain dry provisions for the promise of
a share in the green meat when it should be gathered.

And fitting it was that Plymouth should keep holiday, for not only was
it the governor's marriage morn, but Priscilla Molines, whom all her
townsfolk loved, was to become John Alden's wife; and as the two friends
could not be parted, Mary Chilton had promised upon the day of
Priscilla's marriage to give her hand to John Winslow, one of the
Fortune's pilgrims and brother of Edward and Gilbert. Finally John
Howland so strongly pleaded his cause before the elder and his wife that
they consented to give him Elizabeth Tilley to wife, young though she
was, and to allow him to take her to the pretty cottage he had built
upon The Street, next to Stephen Hopkins's substantial house on the
corner of The Street and the King's Highway. John Alden also had built a
cottage between the captain's house and the governor's; and Eaton with
his wife Lois was to share a house with Peter Browne, who had manfully
assumed the charge of Widow Martha Ford and her three children.

Christian Penn, a stalwart lass, passenger of the Anne, was to make one
of the governor's family, and literally to be "help" to his wife in the
duties of the household, while Mary Becket consented to fill the same
place in Edward Winslow's home.

Barbara, cordially invited both by Alice Southworth and by Priscilla to
become their perpetual guest, laughingly accepted both invitations,
saying to Priscilla,--

"When I find too much pepper in thy soup, Pris, I'll e'en go cool my
tongue