out of the body. Then there was
Cooper, who died cursing and swearing at his wife, and her spendthrift
ways, that wasted all his wage and still sent him to gather more. And
there was the gunner whose whole thought was that he must quit his gear,
and would have his chest stand where he could see it, and the key under
his pillow to the last; and when one of your men asked would he listen
to a bit of a prayer he bawled out with a curse, 'Nay, what profit was
there in prayers, or who would pay him for hearkening.'

"I tell you, masters, 't is the worst port ever I made, and albeit I'm
not a man of dainty or queasy stomach, it turns me sick to see and hear
such things, and know that I'm master of a crew bound for hell though we
called it Virginia."

"Mayhap if the Mayflower's crew had used more diligence in seeking to
land us in Virginia they had not themselves made the port thou speakest
of," said Standish bitterly, while Carver, sighing profoundly, pushed
back from the table in sign that the conference was ended, but said in a
voice of unfeigned friendliness,--

"Truly, Master Jones, thou needest and shall have our kindliest
sympathy, and our prayers, for this that you tell of is a fearful
condition, and a fatal for both body and soul, and well may you call
upon Almighty God for pardon and for mercy. If any of your men are fain
to come on shore we will receive them and give such tendance as we do to
our own, and right certain am I that those of our company yet on board
will do all that they are able for you. Forgetting the past, about which
we might justly murmur if we would, we are ready in your necessity to
reckon you as brothers, and to spend and to be spent in your service, as
God giveth ability.

"Will it please thee to tarry while we hold our evening devotions, and
join thy prayers to ours, that the Lord will have mercy upon all of us?"

"Yes, I'll tarry, though 't is not greatly in my way. Haply He might
take it amiss if I went," muttered Jones looking about him uneasily,
while Carver regarded his hopeless neophyte with divine compassion, and
Elder Brewster prayed long and fervently that not only the children
should be fed, but that the dogs might eat of the crumbs that fell from
the table, and that in the end even the sons of Belial might be forgiven
their blindness and hardness of heart, and receive even though
undeservingly the uncovenanted mercies of God.

Fortunately for his good intentions the object of