Bristol, on a narrow neck of land projecting
into Narragansett Bay. It is now called Mount Hope, and is twelve or
fifteen miles southeast of Providence, Rhode Island.

III. MASSASOIT AND HIS TWO SONS

[Illustration]

In the early evening, during his boyhood days, Philip delighted to sit
near the camp fire where the members of his tribe were wont to gather.
There he eagerly listened to the stories of adventure told by his
elders, and wished that he was old enough to enter into the sports that
they so interestingly described.

Although children were not expected to talk in the presence of their
elders, Philip frequently showed his interest in their stories by
asking many questions in regard to the places visited by the older
Indians.

In those days news traveled slowly from one little village to another,
for there were neither telegraphs nor telephones; no, not even
railroads. In fact, there were no roads, and even the paths through the
woods were so little used that it was difficult to find one's way from
one place to another. The Indians kept no animals of any kind, and
always traveled from place to place on foot.

One pleasant evening in June, in the year 1620, little Philip noticed
that there was less general story-telling than usual, and that the
Indians seemed greatly interested in a long story which one of their
number was telling. He could not understand the story, but he frequently
caught the words, "Squanto" and "English." These were new words to him.

The next evening, as Philip and his brother were sitting by the fire,
they asked their father what had caused the Indians to be so serious in
their talk, and what the long story was about.

"Squanto has come home," his father replied.

"And who is Squanto?" asked Philip.

Then his father told him a story, which was too long to be repeated
here. But in brief it was as follows:

Several years before--long, in fact, before Philip was born--a ship had
come from across the sea. It was larger than any other vessel the
Indians had ever seen.

The only boats that Philip knew anything about were quite small, and
were called canoes. They were made either of birch bark fastened over a
light wooden frame, or of logs that had been hollowed by burning and
charring.

[Illustration: INDIAN IN CANOE]

But the boat from across the sea was many times larger than any of
theirs--so Massasoit explained to the boys--and had accommodations for a
great many men