At once the “Mayflower’s” course was shaped for Plymouth harbor, where she dropped anchor on the 16th of December.[150] The first law on the Pilgrim statute-book was, that each man should build his own house.[151] A few days after the arrival of the ship, “a party of colonists went ashore to fell timber, to saw, to rive, to carry, and prepare for the important work of building; and that day every man worked with a will, hopefully and heartily. A new home, a pleasant refuge, future security, was the aim of every one, and while each cheered the other, the axes rang out in harmony with their hopes; their strokes were as heavy as their hearts were light. The crowned oaks of the forest did homage, and yielded their riches to found the infant state.” After sufficient timber had been secured for present want, “many went to work on an adjacent hill[152] to prepare fortifications; others measured the land, and allotted the lots for building.”[153] The houses were ranged in a double row along one street;[154] and for economic reasons the community was divided into nineteen families, an arrangement which necessitated fewer buildings and less outlay.[155] Yet despite the energetic labors of the settlers, they made haste slowly. At that inclement season it was almost impossible to build. Happily the weather was moderate for December;[156] but rain fell incessantly, which was disastrous to the health of men already wasting away under consumptions and lung-fevers.[157] It was remembered that “a green Christmas makes a fat church-yard.”