Our Pilgrim Forefathers: Thanksgiving Studies — John Shaqi
Our Pilgrim Forefathers: Thanksgiving StudiesNelson, Loveday A.
History
Our Pilgrim Forefathers: Thanksgiving Studies
Nelson, Loveday A.
Pilgrims (New Plymouth Colony)
The ship was small and crowded, and so it was not possible to bring
all the furniture and the hundreds of articles, both little and large,
which they would really need. They had to make not only their houses,
but all these other things as quickly as possible. There were no mills,
no stores, no shops; they could not run down town to get every little
thing needed.
Finally their clothes began to wear out. What could they do? In Holland
they had learned from the Dutch women to raise flax and spin it into
beautiful even threads, and later to weave these threads into good
linen cloth. (The Spinner. Maes.) So now the Pilgrims raised flax and
sheep, and in the winter time, when there was not much other work to
do, the women busied themselves spinning flax and wool into thread and
yarn, which they dyed themselves. This thread and yarn they wove into
cloth and knit up into warm stockings and mittens.
[Illustration: PRISCILLA SPINNING]
(3298. Priscilla Spinning. Barse.) In this picture we see a Puritan
maiden sitting near the cozy fireplace, spinning with a spinning wheel
which she runs with her foot. She has her Bible in her lap, probably so
that she may once in a while read a verse or two to be thinking about
as she works.
Thus we might talk on and on, without being able to tell all about the
Pilgrim forefathers and foremothers and what we owe them. Stories and
poems have been written about them, and artists of many countries have
painted us beautiful pictures of them. We can not look over the books
in any good library without finding much about the brave and upright,
God-loving Pilgrims. We can not go into any of the large galleries
where hang rows and rows of fine paintings, and not see pictures of
Pilgrim scenes. As you grow older you will hear more and more of them.
Some day you may be able to go to Plymouth, the very town which these
brave people began to build almost three hundred years ago. There you
will have pointed out to you the very Plymouth Rock on which they
landed; perhaps you will visit Burial Hill, where sleep their noble
dead; you will see the first street laid out, the spot where the first
house was built, and the monument erected to the Pilgrims’ memory. The
townspeople will take pride in telling you how long it took to build
the marble giant, and how much money it cost.
They will direct you to Pilgrim Hall, which is filled with things which
were once used by the Pilgrims, or have something to do with them.
Here you may see among other things a chest and a chair which once
belonged to Elder Brewster, whose black-gowned figure we see in so many
pictures, Governor Carver’s chair, a dinner pot, and the sword of Miles
Standish. Here, too, hang a number of the Pilgrim pictures, which our
country wishes to keep forever, if possible.
SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS
Take plenty of time. The first of November is none too soon to begin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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