thout underwood, fit either to walk or to ride in. At
night our people returned and found not any people or inhabitants, and
laded their boat with juniper, which smelled very sweet and strong, and
of which we burned for the most part while we were there."

"See there," said little Love Winslow, "what fine red berries Captain
Miles Standish hath brought."

"Yea, my little maid, there is a brave lot of holly berries for thee to
dress the cabin withal. We shall not want for Christmas greens here,
though the houses and churches are yet to come."

"Yea, Brother Miles," said Elder Brewster, "the trees of the Lord are
full of sap in this land, even the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath
planted. It hath the look to me of a land which the Lord our God hath
blessed."

"There is a most excellent depth of black, rich earth," said Carver, "and
a great tangle of grapevines, whereon the leaves in many places yet hung,
and we picked up stores of walnuts under a tree--not so big as our
English ones--but sweet and well-flavored."

"Know ye, brethren, what in this land smelleth sweetest to me?" said
Elder Brewster. "It is the smell of liberty. The soil is free--no man
hath claim thereon. In Old England a poor man may starve right on his
mother's bosom; there may be stores of fish in the river, and bird and
fowl flying, and deer running by, and yet though a man's children be
crying for bread, an' he catch a fish or snare a bird, he shall be
snatched up and hanged. This is a sore evil in Old England; but we will
make a country here for the poor to dwell in, where the wild fruits and
fish and fowl shall be the inheritance of whosoever will have them; and
every man shall have his portion of our good mother earth, with no lords
and no bishops to harry and distrain, and worry with taxes and tythes."

"Amen, brother!" said Miles Standish, "and thereto I give my best
endeavors with sword and buckler."

CHAPTER III.

CHRISTMAS TIDE IN PLYMOUTH HARBOR.

For the rest of that month of November the _Mayflower_ lay at anchor in
Cape Cod harbor, and formed a floating home for the women and children,
while the men were out exploring the country, with a careful and steady
shrewdness and good sense, to determine where should be the site of the
future colony. The record of their adventures is given in their journals
with that sweet homeliness of phrase which hangs about the Old English of
that period like the smell of rosemary in an ancient c