When these forests were first explored, an enterprising member of the _Mayflower’s_ crew, climbing a high tree to see how the land lay, saw shining before him a blue sheet of water which he took to be the ocean, and this was called after him “Billington’s Sea.” Following the shore of this lake, through the leafy paths of Morton’s Park, we come upon the source of the famous Town Brook, which with its honorable record of two centuries’ supply of alewives has always played an important part in the town’s annals, helping to grind the Pilgrims’ first grists in 1636, and now lending its busy aid in turning complicated machinery. In the fields on either side--the hunting-grounds of the banished race who once rejoiced in their possession--are still found the beautifully worked Indian arrow-heads and hatchets; here the smoke arose from their wigwams; here they often paddled past in their swift canoes, and here, perhaps, were shot the five deer that formed their offering in the first New England Thanksgiving. [Illustration: THE GRAVE OF DR. FRANCIS LE BARRAN, THE NAMELESS NOBLEMAN.] But the manifold charms of Plymouth and Plymouth Woods must be seen and felt on the soil whence they sprung! So in the hope that the “Courteous Reader” to whom they are still unfamiliar may care to verify this truthful statement, we leave in brief and imperfect outline this story of the Old Colony, whither “they wente weeping and carried precious seeds; but they shall returne with joye and bring their sheaves.” [Illustration] [Illustration] CAPE COD TOWNS FROM PROVINCETOWN TO FALMOUTH BY KATHARINE LEE BATES “Cape Cod,” wrote Thoreau, “is the bared and bended arm of Massachusetts; the shoulder is at Buzzard’s Bay; the elbow, or crazy-bone, at Cape Mallebarre; the wrist at Truro; and the sandy fist at Provincetown--behind which the State stands on her guard.”