Mother has written down some rules for me at table, so that I may do credit to my bringing up when at the house of a friend, and these I am copying for you, to the end that it shall be seen I am not so pampered by being allowed to sit while eating, as to forget what belongs to good breeding: "Never sit down at the table till asked, and after the blessing. "Ask for nothing; tarry till it be offered thee. Speak not. "Bite not thy bread, but break it. "Take salt only with a clean knife. Dip not the meat in the same. "Hold not thy knife upright, but sloping, and lay it down at the right hand of the plate with blade on plate. "Look not earnestly at any other that is eating. "When moderately satisfied, leave the table. "Sing not, hum not, wriggle not." You may see that if I follow these rules carefully, I shall not bring shame upon my mother. It is only when the large wooden bowl, which is called the voider, is placed on the table that I am most awkward, and mother insisted on my learning this poem, which contains many wholesome rules for behavior: "When the meat is taken quite away, And voiders in your presence laid, Put you your trencher in the same And all the crumbs which you have made. Take you with your napkin and knife, The crumbs that are before thee; In the voider a napkin leave, For it is a courtesy." WHEN THE PILGRIM GOES ABROAD If there be a desire to travel, we must either walk, or sail in boats, and one may not go far on foot in either direction along the coast, without coming upon streams or brooks over which has been felled a tree to serve as bridge. Now father thinks a bridge of that kind is all that may be necessary, because of his footing being so sure; but you know that women are more timid, and it is difficult to walk above the rushing streams on so slight a support as a round log. [Illustration] Because of having made our plantation near to a deserted Indian village, there were paths through the woods in every direction, and these we used whenever making an excursion in search of bayberry plums, or herbs of any kind. The Indians, after Squanto had made us friendly with the great chief Massasoit, were ready to sell us boats, and queer sorts of ships would they seem in your eyes. One kind is made of the bark taken from the birch tree in great sheets, sewn together with sinews of deer, and besmeared with fat from the pitch pine. [Illustration] I have seen one that would carry with safety four people, so light that I myself could lift it, but no man may use one of these bark vessels without first having been taught how to sail it, for they are so like a feather on the water that the slightest movement oversets them. For my part, I feel more secure in what our people call a dugout, which is made with much labor by the Indians, and is, as Captain Standish says in truth, "a most unwieldy ship." MAKING A DUGOUT