It was during this winter that John Alden, who is a cooper as well as Captain Standish's clerk, spent three days in our home, making for mother two tubs which are fair to look upon, and of such size that we are no longer troubled on washdays by being forced to throw away the soapy water in order to rinse the clothes which have already been cleansed. You may think it strange to hear me speak thus of the waste of soapy water, because you in Scrooby have of soap an abundance, while here in this new land we are put to great stress through lack of it. [Illustration] It would not be so ill if all the housewives would make a generous quantity, but there are some among us who are not so industrious as others, and dislike the labor of making soap. They fail to provide sufficient for themselves, but depend upon borrowing; thus spending the stores of those who have looked ahead for the needs of the future. Well, as I have said, the winter passed, and we were come to the second summer after making this settlement of Plymouth. Once more was famine staring us in the face, therefore every man, woman and child, save those chosen to go fishing, was sent into the fields for the planting. ENGLISH VISITORS It was while our people were out fishing that they were met by a great surprise, which was nothing less than a shallop steering as if to come into the harbor, and in her were many men. At first our fishermen feared the visitors might be Frenchmen who had come bent on some evil intent; but nevertheless our people approached boldly, and soon learned that the shallop came from a ship nearby, which Master Weston had sent out fishing from a place on the coast called Damarins Cove. This Master Weston, so I learned later, was one of those merchants who had aided in fitting out our company in England; but after our departure had decided to send a colony on his own account, and the people afterward settled at Wessagussett. [Illustration] The reason why the shallop, of which I have just spoken, came toward our village of Plymouth, was that Master Weston's ship had brought over seven men who wished to join us, and, what was yet better, they had with them letters from our friends at home. It was unfortunate that they had no food other than enough to serve until they should have come to our settlement, and thus it was that there were more mouths yet for us to feed from our scanty store. A few weeks later we heard that a company of men from England had begun to build a village within five and twenty miles of our Plymouth town. There is little need for me to say that we rejoiced to learn of neighbors in this wilderness of a country; but were more than surprised because the ship which brought them over the seas had not come into our harbor. VISITING THE NEIGHBORS