Now in Holland, in the course of time, the Dutch and the English children became very good friends. Before very long the English boys and girls were talking Dutch as easily as if they had been born in Holland, and had never heard of any other country.
“My, my,” said good Father Brewster, the leader of the Puritans, as they were called. “This will never do. We want our children to talk English, and to love England and her ways”—for the Puritans still loved their country and their flag, just as we love our beautiful flag with the stars and stripes.
“They say,” said Father Brewster, “that far away over the ocean there is a land called America. Let us go to America. There we can build houses like those we had in England, and there our children can be brought up as English people. Yes, we will go to America.”
So the Puritans engaged two big ships, and started to sail from Holland to America. But one of the ships was too old and too worn out to cross the ocean, so all the people embarked on the other ship and sailed away.
The ship was called the Mayflower.
The Mayflower was crowded, and it rocked so that the boys and girls became very tired. They wished they could get off and play on land once more.
But two beautiful presents came to interest and amuse them on the long voyage. And what do you think they were? Two little babies. One of them was named Peregrine White. The other was named Oceanus Hopkins, because he was born on the ocean.
One morning the children looked far away across the water, and they could see a dark line. It was the land—America.
The next day the sails of the ship were taken down, and the anchor was dropped in a little bay. Then some of the men climbed down from the ship into a small boat, and rowed to the shore to see what the place was like. In a little while they came back and called out, “Come, we will take you all ashore.”
Such a scurrying and hurrying as there was then! Back and forth the little boat went, until all the boys and girls, and men and women were on the shore.