r sister Juliana had come with her husband, George Morton, and their
five children, Patience already a winsome lass of fifteen, soon to marry
John Faunce and become mother of the last ruling Elder of Plymouth
Church.

Later on, two more of these fair Carpenter girls were to come over to
the home of their sister Alice: Priscilla, who married William Wright,
one of the joyous passengers of the Fortune; and Mary, of whom the
Chronicles say that she died "a godly old maid" in her sister's home.

Pardon the interlude, but there is something very fascinating in the
story of this family of five beautiful girls so eagerly sought in
marriage by the best men of the colony, and of her who was the flower of
all and yet died "a godly old maid."

The governor's boat was at the Rock, and willing hands on shore caught
at the rope thrown from the bows, and dragged her up so that the
passengers could step out dry shod. Standish drew back a little, and
with folded arms stood watching the debarkation. Last of all came
Bradford and the two ladies he had escorted.

"So that is Mistress Alice Carpenter Southworth, is it," muttered the
soldier grasping a handful of his ruddy beard. "Well, it is a winsome
dame and a gentle; I wonder not that Will hath"--

But the calm comment ended abruptly in an exclamation of incredulity and
pleasure, for when Mistress Southworth stood safely upon the strand,
Bradford turned and gave his hand to her companion, a girl of some four
or five and twenty years old, with one of those rounded and supple
figures which combine strength and delicacy, endurance and elasticity,
and are very slow in yielding to the attacks of Time. A demure hood tied
under the chin framed a round face, whose firm fair skin had defied the
tarnish of the sea, and only gained a somewhat warmer glow in cheek and
lip than its native tone. Little tendrils of sunny brown hair pushed
their laughing way from beneath the edge of the hood and curled joyously
to the fingers of the toying wind. Straight dark brows and long
eyelashes of the same deep tint gave character to the face, and shaded a
pair of eyes whose beauty has stamped itself upon every generation of
this woman's descendants. Large, and peculiarly opened, these eyes were
of a clear violet blue, but with pupils whose frequent dilatation gave
such range of tint and expression, and such extraordinary brilliancy
that many were found to insist that the eyes themselves were black,
while oth