ent over to Holland, and lived ten or twelve years at Amsterdam and
Leyden. But they feared that, if they continued there much longer, they
should cease to be English, and should adopt all the manners and ideas and
feelings of the Dutch. For this and other reasons, in the year 1620, they
embarked on board of the ship Mayflower, and crossed the ocean to the
shores of Cape Cod. There they made a settlement, and called it Plymouth;
which, though now a part of Massachusetts, was for a long time a colony by
itself. And thus was formed the earliest settlement of the Puritans in
America.

Meantime, those of the Puritans who remained in England continued to
suffer grievous persecution on account of their religious opinions. They
began to look around them for some spot where they might worship God, not
as the king and bishops thought fit, but according to the dictates of
their own consciences. When their brethren had gone from Holland to
America, they bethought themselves that they likewise might find refuge
from persecution there. Several gentlemen among them purchased a tract of
country on the coast of Massachusetts Bay, and obtained a charter from
King Charles, which authorized them to make laws for the settlers. In the
year 1628, they sent over a few people, with John Endicott at their head,
to commence a plantation at Salem. Peter Palfrey, Roger Conant, and one or
two more, had built houses there in 1626, and may be considered as the
first settlers of that ancient town. Many other Puritans prepared to
follow Endicott.

"And now we come to the chair, my dear children," said Grandfather. "This
chair is supposed to have been made of an oak tree which grew in the park
of the English earl of Lincoln, between two and three centuries ago. In
its younger days it used, probably, to stand in the hall of the earl's
castle. Do not you see the coat of arms of the family of Lincoln, carved
in the open work of the back? But when his daughter, the Lady Arbella, was
married to a certain Mr. Johnson, the earl gave her this valuable chair."

"Who was Mr. Johnson?" inquired Clara.

"He was a gentleman of great wealth, who agreed with the Puritans in their
religious opinions," answered Grandfather. "And as his belief was the same
as theirs, he resolved that he would live and die with them. Accordingly,
in the month of April, 1630, he left his pleasant abode and all his
comforts in England, and embarked with the Lady Arbella, on board of a
sh