It was a very cold day, the twenty-second of December, 1620. But they did not mind the cold.
In a little time the men had built some log houses, and soon there was a church. The black rock on which the Pilgrims first stepped can be seen to-day. It is called Plymouth Rock. The first girl to step upon Plymouth rock was Mary Chilton.
One day a visitor came to see the Pilgrims. He was an Indian. He had long, black hair. He was dressed in deerskin. He had a bow and arrows, to shoot birds and deer with.
The Indian was very glad to see the white people. “Welcome, Englishmen,” he said. He stayed over night with the Pilgrims, and the next morning went away.
Soon he came back, bringing some friends with him.
When spring came, the Indians showed the Pilgrims how to catch eels, and where to find fish. They also gave the Pilgrims corn to plant. They showed them how to plant the corn, putting a fish in each hill to make the corn grow well.
All summer long the boys and girls played around the log-houses, and were very happy. There were beautiful wild-flowers, and bright-colored song-birds in the woods where they played. One flower that blossomed in the early spring they named the Mayflower, for the ship in which they had come. The trailing arbutus has been called the Mayflower to this day.
When the summer was ended, and all the corn and wheat were gathered in, the Pilgrims said, “Let us have Thanksgiving Day. We will thank God because he made the sun to shine, and the rain to fall, and the corn to grow.”
Then the mothers said, “We will have a Thanksgiving party, and invite the Indians. We will cook some of everything raised on the farms.”
The men shot deer, and wild geese, and wild turkeys for the dinner, and that is why we like to have roast goose or turkey for our Thanksgiving dinner.