VI. Stout Hearts and Sad Ones 76 VII. The Persuasive Power of Justice and 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 XVI. A Gallant Lad Withal 234 XVII. The Well-Conned Lesson 251 XVIII. Christmas Wins, Though Outlawed 267 XIX. A Fault Confessed, Thereby Redressed 284 XX. The Third Summer's Garnered Yield 302 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS "Constance opened the door, stepping back to let the bride precede her" _Frontispiece_ (_See page 157_) FACING PAGE "'Constantia; confess, confess--and do not try to shield thy wicked brother'" 52 "'Look there,' said John Alden" 116 "'You look splendid, my Knight of the Wilderness'" 244 A PILGRIM MAID A Story of Plymouth Colony in 1620 _A PILGRIM MAID_ CHAPTER I With England's Shores Left Far Astern A young girl, brown-haired, blue-eyed, with a sweet seriousness that was neither joy nor sorrow upon her fair pale face, leaned against the mast on the _Mayflower's_ deck watching the bustle of the final preparations for setting sail westward. A boy somewhat older than she stood beside her whittling an arrow from a bit of beechwood, whistling through his teeth, his tongue pressed against them, a livelier air than a pilgrim boy from Leyden was supposed to know, and sullenly scorning to betray interest in the excitement ashore and aboard. A little girl clung to the pretty young girl's skirt; the unlikeness between them, though they were sisters, was explained by their being but half sisters. Little Damaris was like her mother, Constance's stepmother, while Constance herself reflected the delicate loveliness of her own and her brother Giles's mother, dead in early youth and lying now at rest in a green English churchyard while her children were setting forth into the unknown. Two boys--one older than Constance, Giles's age, the other younger than the girl--came rushing down the deck with such impetuosity, plus the younger lad's head used as a battering ram, that the men at work stowing away hampers and barrels, trying to clear a way for the start, gave place to the rough onslaught.