Standish of Standish: A Story of the PilgrimsAustin, Jane G. (Jane Goodwin)
History
Standish of Standish: A Story of the Pilgrims
Austin, Jane G. (Jane Goodwin)
Massachusetts -- History -- New Plymouth, 1620-1691 -- Fiction
The house where we have found Priscilla was that of Elder Brewster,
situated on the corner of The Street and the King's Highway, as the
Pilgrims called the path crossing The Street at right angles, and
leading down to the brook, although to-day we should say that the
elder's house stood on the corner of Leyden and Market streets; like all
others built at this time, it was a low structure covered in with planks
hewn from the forest trees, and roofed with thatch. At each side of the
entrance door lay a tolerably large room, that on the right hand,
nearest to the brook, used as kitchen, dining, and general living room,
while the other was the family sleeping room, and also used as a
withdrawing room, where the elder held counsel with the governor, or
other friends, and studied his exhortation for the coming Sunday; here,
also, Mistress Brewster led her boys, or the maidens she guided, for
reproof, counsel, or tender comforting. At the back of this room,
partitioned by a curtain, was a nook, where Wrestling, a delicate child
of six, and Love, his sturdier brother, two years older, nestled like
kittens in a little cot. Above in the loft, reached by a ladder-like
staircase, was a comfortable room appropriated to Mary Chilton,
Priscilla Molines, and Elizabeth Tilley, all orphaned within three
months, and at once adopted by the Elder's wife as her especial charge.
In the next house, on a lot of land appropriated at first to John
Goodman and some others, the governor had taken up his abode with his
delicate wife, her maid Lois, Desire Minter their ward, and several
children whom she cared for. John Howland, the governor's secretary and
right-hand man, also lived here, and, like the manly man he was,
hesitated not to give help wherever it was needed.
Owing to Mrs. Carver's very delicate health, it had been arranged that
this family should share the table at Elder Brewster's, where the young
girls just mentioned were ready and glad to take charge of the household
labors, leaving their elders free for other matters.
In another house, placed in charge of Stephen Hopkins and his bustling
wife, nearly all the unmarried men were gathered, and made a hearty and
soberly jocund family. The third house, headed by Isaac Allerton and his
daughters, was the home of Bradford, Winslow, Mistress Susannah White,
with her children, Resolved and Peregrine, and her brother, Doctor
Fuller, with their little nephew, Samuel Fuller, whose father and mother
both lay on Cole's Hill.
In the Common house, under charge of Master Warren, with the Billingtons
as officials, were gathered the rest of the company except Standish, who
slept in his own house on the hill, but had his place at Elder
Brewster's table when he chose to take it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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