e the pittance of the night before, and yet for nine long
hours of that fearful day, the air so heated that it hardly fed the
lungs, and the sun blazing so pitilessly upon the log structure that a
faint odor of parching wood mingled with the torrid air within the Fort,
yes, for nine long hours the elder prayed, or preached, or recited aloud
the deep abasement of the penitential psalms, and the wail of the
prophets, proclaiming, yet deprecating, the wrath of an offended God.

In the intervals others spoke; Doctor Fuller, himself a deacon in the
church, and Bradford, whose petition less abject than that of the elder,
called confidently for help, upon Him who twice fed a starving
multitude, who promised that no petition in His name should go
unanswered, who hungering in the wilderness knew the extremity of
famine, who cried aloud, I Thirst, who has promised to be with His own
in all time till Time shall be no more.

Standish, like the statue of a sentinel in bronze, stood at the door
leaning upon his snaphance, listening intently to all, and breathing a
deep-throated Amen to the governor's prayer.

Noon blazed overhead, and Priscilla, ah, poor white, attenuate
Priscilla, crept down the hill to the elder's house, and gathering a
handful of fire-wood warmed some broth made from a rabbit snared by
Alden the day before, and silently brought a cup to the mother, who
drank it with the tears brimming over her patient, faded eyes.

"I am not worthy to fast with the rest of you. I am an unprofitable
servant," whispered she handing back the cup and covering her face.

"Oh, mother, mother, do not break my heart," cried the girl, whom the
smell of food had turned sick and faint. "It is not so, dear saint. The
Lord will not have thee fast because He knows thou art already
perfected"--

"Hush, hush, my child; thy words are both wild and wicked. Get thee back
to the House of Prayer, and beg our God to forgive thy sin of
presumption. Fare thee well--nay, one moment,--doth,--doth the elder
look sadly spent?--he is not over strong--and Jonathan? Didst mark him
and the boys? Wrestling is but puny."

"They are all in such strength as can be looked for, mother dear, and
will hold out as well as any." And Priscilla wanly smiled in the poor
pinched face, adjusted the cushions and the foot-rest, and without so
much as a drop of cold water for herself, wearily climbed the hill. The
captain making room for her to pass looked with anxious sym