"That will be jolly fun," said Joe, jumping up and dancing around the room. "I wish it were next summer now." "Don't be noisy Joe," said his sister. "Uncle Sam won't tell us anything more, if you are." "I have told more now than you will remember, my dear," said her old friend. "Before we leave the Pilgrims, however, I must say one thing. After they were well settled, friends from England came to join them. This made them very happy. "A few years afterwards, still other people came from England to live in this part of the country. Their religion was not exactly the same as that of the Pilgrims. They were called the Puritans. They said: "'We do not wish to go out of the English church. Yet we would like to make it _pure_. Some things have grown up in it which we think are wrong.' "There were many Puritans in England, but the king would not listen to them. That is why they made up their minds to come to America. "They were not poor like the Pilgrims. They brought plenty of clothes and furniture, horses, cattle, and pigs, and everything they needed to make themselves comfortable. They did not have to suffer as the Pilgrims did. "The first Puritans came to Salem. They said: "'The word Salem means peace. It is a good name for our new home.' "Hundreds of Puritans followed the first ones who came to America. They settled in Boston and other places near by. They built forts and schoolhouses, besides homes for themselves. "They planted wheat and rye as well as Indian corn. They cut down the forests and caught fish and salted them. They bought furs from the Indians, and sent them, as well as lumber and salt fish, to England. The English people were glad to buy these things and sent in return books, tools, and other things the Puritans needed in their new home." Uncle Sam stopped to rest a moment. Then he went on: "Maybe you think the Pilgrims were strict." Joe and Lucy nodded their heads. "Well, I suppose they were. We call their ways old-fashioned, now-a-days. But if you had lived in their time, you would have been a good deal happier with them than with the Puritans. "Strict! Why, the Puritans wanted to _make_ everybody believe just as they did. They did not have any patience with those who did not agree with them. "They had hard laws, too. They punished anyone who swore, or even scolded. A high frame called the stocks stood in the middle of every village. It had a number of holes in it. Many of those who did small wrongs had to sit all day with their legs and arms through these holes. That was the way they were held up to scorn. "Then there were ducking-stools. If women became common scolds, they were bound to these stools and ducked in a river or pond. "Once in a while a man was caught swearing. It was a sad day for him. A split stick was fastened on his tongue for hours together. If that did not cure him, his tongue was burned with a red-hot iron.