"In fears and wants, through weal and woe, A pilgrim passed I to and fro; Oft left of them whom I did trust, How vain it is to rest in dust! A man of sorrows I have been, And many changes I have seen, Wars, wants, peace, plenty I have known, And some advanc'd, others thrown down." When Mistress Alice Bradford died she was "mourned, though aged" by many. To her memory, Nathaniel Morton, her nephew, wrote some lines which were more biographic than poetical, recalling her early life as an exile with her father from England for the truth's sake, her first marriage: "To one whose grace and virtue did surpasse, I mean good Edward Southworth whoe not long Continued in this world the saints amonge." With extravagant words he extols the name of Bradford,--"fresh in memory Which smeles with odoriferous fragrancye." This elegist records also that, after her second widowhood, she lived a "life of holynes and faith, In reading of God's word and contemplation Which healped her to assurance of salvation." This is not a very lively, graphic description of the woman most honored, perhaps, of all the pioneer women of Plymouth, but we may add, by imagination, a few sure traits of human kindliness and grace. She was typical of those women who came in _The Mayflower_ and her sister ships. Although she escaped the tragic struggles and illness of that first winter, yet she revealed the same qualities of courage, good sense, fidelity and vision which were the watchwords of that group of women in Plymouth colony. Yes,--they had vision to see their part in the sincere purpose to establish a new standard of liberty in state and church, to serve God and mankind with all their integrity and resources. As the leaders among the men were self-sacrificing and honorable in their dealings with their financiers, with the Indians and with each other, so the women were faithful and true in their homes and communal life. They took scarcely any part in the civic administration, for such responsibility did not come into the lives of seventeenth century women. They were actively interested in the educational and religious life of the colony. Their moral standards were high and inflexible; they extolled, and practised, the virtues of thrift and industry. It may be well for women in America today, who were querulous at the restrictions upon sugar and electric lights, to consider the good sense, and good cheer, with which these women of Plymouth Colony directed their thrifty households.