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A PILGRIM MAID
A Story of Plymouth Colony in 1620
"Constance opened the door, stepping back to let thebride precede her"]
A PILGRIM MAID
_A Story of Plymouth Colony in 1620_
BY MARION AMES TAGGART
AUTHOR OF "CAPTAIN SYLVIA," "THE DAUGHTERS OF THE LITTLE GREY HOUSE," "THE LITTLE GREY HOUSE," "HOLLYHOCK HOUSE," ETC.
ILLUSTRATED BY THE DONALDSONS
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY GARDEN CITY NEW YORK LONDON 1920
COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN
DEDICATED TO YOU, MY DEAR WHO SO WELL KNOW WHY
PREFACE
This story is like those we hear of our neighbours to-day: it is amixture of fact and fancy.
The aim in telling it has been to present Plymouth Colony as it was inits first three years of existence; to keep to possibilities, even whileinventing incidents.
Actual events have been transferred from a later to an earlier year whenthey could be made useful, to bring them within the story's compass, andto develop it.
For instance, John Billington was lost for five days and died early, butnot as early as in the story. Stephen Hopkins was fined for allowinghis servants to play shovelboard, but this did not happen till some timelater than 1622. Stephen Hopkins was twice married; records show thatthere was dissension; that the second wife tried to get an inheritancefor her own children, to the injury of the son and daughter of the firstwife. Facts of this sort are used, enlarged upon, construed to cause, oraltered to suit, certain results.
But there is fidelity to the general trend of events, above all to thespirit of Plymouth in its beginnings. As far as may be, the people whohave been transferred into the story act in accordance with what isknown of the actual bearers of these names.
There was a Maid of Plymouth, Constance Hopkins, who came in the_Mayflower_, with her father Stephen; her stepmother, Eliza; herbrother, Giles, and her little half-sister and brother, Damaris andOceanus, and to whom the _Anne_, in 1623, brought her husband,Honourable Nicholas Snowe, afterward one of the founders of Eastham,Massachusetts.
Undoubtedly the real Constance Hopkins was sweeter than the story canmake her, as a living girl must be sweeter than one created of paper andink. Yet it is hoped that this Plymouth Maid, Constance, of the story,may also find friends.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. With England's Shores Left Far Astern 3
II. To Buffet Waves and Ride on Storms 15
III. Weary Waiting at the Gates 31
IV. The First Yuletide 45
V. The New Year in the New Land 61
VI. Stout Hearts and Sad Ones 76
VII. The Persuasive Power of Justiceand Violence 90
VIII. Deep Love, Deep Wound 104
IX. Seedtime of the First Spring 119
X. Treaties 133
XI. A Home Begun and a Home Undone 150
XII. The Lost Lads 166
XIII. Sundry Herbs and Simples 183
XIV. Light-Minded Man, Heavy-Hearted Master 199
XV. The "Fortune" That Sailed, First West,then East 216