speculated upon his
second choice.
Listening to the governor's report of Browne's discovery, Standish
nodded, as not surprised, and said,--
"Ay, 't is sure to come, soon or late, and a peace won by arms is
stronger than one framed of words. When the salvages have made their
onset and we have chastised them roundly, we shall be right good
friends. Meantime, Francis Cooke and I left our adzes and wedges where
we were hewing plank, and so soon as I have taken bite and sup I'll
forth to look for them with my snaphance."
"We've heard of locking the stable door when the steed was stolen,"
murmured Priscilla to Mary, and the captain, whose ear was quick as a
hare's, half turned toward her with a glint of laughter in his eyes.
But the jibe was prophetic, for when, half an hour later, Standish and
Cooke returned to the tree they had felled, the tools were all gone, and
a headless arrow was left standing derisively in the cleft of a log.
"Hm! A cartel of defiance," said the captain drawing it out and grimly
examining it. "Well, 't is like our savage forefathers of Britain
challenging Julius Caesar and the Roman power. But come, Cooke, 't is
certain we cannot rive plank with our naked hands, and since our tools
are gone, we had best go home and work at the housen. To-morrow we'll
take some order with these masters."
CHAPTER XIII.
THE CAPTAIN'S PROMOTION.
The afternoon and evening were devoted to a thorough review and
furbishing of weapons, many of which had suffered from exposure and
neglect during the press of building and of sickness.
And surely never could artist find better subject for his painting than
the scene at Elder Brewster's fireside that night where upon the hearth
Standish and Alden moulded a heap of silvery bullets, while Priscilla
and Mary and Elizabeth Tilley twirled their spinning-wheels, or knitted
the long woolen hose worn both by men and women in those days, looking
demurely from time to time toward the hearth, where Alden occasionally
dropped a little boiling lead into a skillet of hot water, and nodded to
one or other of the girls as he drew out the emblems thus formed.
At the back of the room gathered Brewster and Winslow and Carver and
Bradford, discussing plans of defense in low and eager tones, while over
all fell the broad and ruddy light of the floods of flame that rushed
weltering up the chimney and out upon the night, carrying tidings to the
wild woods and wilder men cr
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