Only one month of sweetness and perfume was that sweet rose to shed over the hard and troubled life of the pilgrims, for the saints and angels loved her, and were from day to day gently untying mortal bands to draw her to themselves. Yet was there nothing about her of mournfulness; on the contrary, she was ever alert and bright, with a ready tongue to cheer and a helpful hand to do; and, seeing the sadness that seemed stealing over Mary Winslow, she struck another key, and, catching little Love up in her arms, said cheerily, "Come hither, pretty one, and Rose will sing thee a brave carol for Christmas. We won't be down-hearted, will we? Hark now to what the minstrels used to sing under my window when I was a little girl: "I saw three ships come sailing in On Christmas day, on Christmas day, I saw three ships come sailing in On Christmas day in the morning. "And what was in those ships all three On Christmas day, on Christmas day, And what was in those ships all three On Christmas day in the morning? "Our Saviour Christ and his laydie, On Christmas day, on Christmas day, Our Saviour Christ and his laydie On Christmas day in the morning. "Pray, whither sailed those ships all three, On Christmas day, on Christmas day? Oh, they sailed into Bethlehem, On Christmas day in the morning. "And all the bells on earth shall ring On Christmas day, on Christmas day; And all the angels in heaven shall sing On Christmas day in the morning. "Then let us all rejoice amain, On Christmas day, on Christmas day; Then let us all rejoice amain On Christmas day in the morning." "Now, isn't that a brave ballad?" said Rose. "Yea, and thou singest like a real English robin," said Margery, "to do the heart good to hear thee." CHAPTER IV. ELDER BREWSTER'S CHRISTMAS SERMON. Sunday morning found the little company gathered once more on the ship, with nothing to do but rest and remember their homes, temporal and spiritual--homes backward, in old England, and forward, in Heaven. They were, every man and woman of them, English to the back-bone. From Captain Jones who commanded the ship to Elder Brewster who ruled and guided in spiritual affairs, all alike were of that stock and breeding which made the Englishman of the days of Bacon and Shakespeare, and in those days Christmas was knit into the heart of every one of them by a thousand threads, which no after years could untie. Christmas carols had been sung to them by nurses and mothers and grandmothers; the Christmas holly spoke to them from every berry and prickly leaf, full of dearest household memories. Some of them had been men of substance among the English gentry, and in their prosperous days had held high festival in ancestral halls in the season of good cheer. Elder Brewster himself had been a rising young diplomat in the court of Elizabeth, in the days when the Lord Keeper of the Seals led the revels of Christmas as Lord of Misrule.