Historic Girlhoods, Part OneHolland, Rupert Sargent
History
Historic Girlhoods, Part One
Holland, Rupert Sargent
Women -- Biography -- Juvenile literature
Ma-ta-oka, or Pocahontas as we call her, was a real heroine, one of the
few daughters we know of that brave, romantic race which so quickly
vanished from America after the white settlers came. Many among the
Indians were cruel and bloodthirsty, many were treacherous and sly, but
Pocahontas we know was warm-hearted and true, faithful to the great
Captain she had admired before she had even seen him and risking her
life to save him from her father. It is fortunate that history has kept
her story, for we must always think more kindly of the Indians when we
remember the little daughter of Powhatan, nicknamed Pocahontas by her
father because she was such a tomboy.
VIII
Priscilla Alden
The Girl of Plymouth: About 1604--after 1680
Two girls stood on the deck of the _Mayflower_, hand clasped in hand,
their eyes fixed on a narrow strip of grayish shore beyond the waste
of tossing ocean. About them stood others, men and women and a few
children, all looking in the same direction, wonder and satisfaction
and a certain awe in their faces. They had been at sea for nearly
thirteen weeks, and during most of that time their little ship had been
buffeted by constant storms.
"Mary dear," said one of the girls to the other, "can you really
believe that yonder low line is land?"
"I doubted if it could be when John first pointed it out to me,"
answered the other, "but now I'm sure of it. I can almost see the
breakers on the shore. Do you know, Priscilla, that that's where you
and I are to live and that we may never see England again?" Her hand
tightened on her friend's and her dark eyes turned towards her.
"Our home!" murmured Priscilla softly. "It looks bleak enough from
here. I hope we find it pleasant country inland."
All over the _Mayflower_ men and women were pointing out the shore
to one another and calling it their home. They had come from England to
find a land where they might worship God in their own way, and had
sailed over the wide and stormy Western sea to found a new colony in
this new and almost unknown land.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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