John Alden stops on his way past with a morning greeting. What man more anxious than he for the arrival of the Anne, though his bride-to-be is not on the ship. Through many months Priscilla has heard love’s voice, sweet and low, tender and strong, and though for one reason and another it seemed best to wait, she has now promised to marry him when the uncertainty about the ship is over, for she could not leave dear Mistress Brewster, who had so mothered her, in the suspense concerning her own daughters, nor be selfish in thinking of her own affairs when the universal anxiety was so great.
They too, talk of the weather, of the breeze from the southwest, and glance at the chimney’s long finger of smoke pointing, pointing to the sea. Half unconsciously they look in that direction and watch the thinning fog as it seems to form in patterns like Flemish lace, as Priscilla says. Now it has parted and the sun’s brilliancy streams through making a jewelled pathway on the water. Quickly Priscilla grasps Mary Brewster’s hand and flings out her arm in the direction the smoke has been pointing. Against the pink and golden morning sky there is a ship, coming slowly, slowly, into the harbor, flinging before her wreaths of pearly foam. The Anne!
“Then from their houses in haste came forth the Pilgrims of Plymouth,
Men and women and children all hurrying down to the sea shore.”
Never again did the Pilgrims of Plymouth experience the thrill of that moment at the arrival of any ship, and only once before had the feeling approached it—at the arrival of the Fortune. Though some emotions were similar in each case, such as relief and joy, the circumstances were dissimilar. The relief was for themselves, for their own welfare, in the first case, in the second their relief was doubled, as the welfare of those on the ship was the chief thought. The first joy was coupled with surprise at its unexpectedness, the second with thanksgiving at the fulfillment of a great hope and anticipation.
Fathers and husbands, brothers and friends jumped into boats to put off to the Anne to see and greet at the earliest possible moment those of whom they had been thinking and dreaming for so long. Here is Richard Warren, Doctor Fuller and Francis Cooke, of the first division, Jonathan Brewster and Thomas Prence, of the second, off in the first dash. The governor’s boat takes also his assistant, Isaac Allerton, and Captain Myles Standish. Those on the ship, crowding along the rail, see the boats coming to them over the laughing wavelets, and recognizing one after another of the men as they come alongside, laugh in reply as they wave.
There has been written some charming verses descriptive of the arrival in this country of the foreign girls who married members of the A. E. F. of the recent war. The conclusion fits well with that scene of nearly three hundred years ago:
“They loved our heroes well enough
To leave all else besides
And make America their own,
So welcome home the brides.”
Yes, and wives, too. The ship’s band, if there had been one, might well have played the tune of “Sweethearts and Wives,” while Plymouth’s drum and fife could have replied with “Haste to the Wedding,” or “Here Comes the Bride.”
When the excitement had subsided a little, in a few days time, the Brewster girls had the interesting event of a wedding in their home, for their old friend, Priscilla married the young man of her choice, whom they had never seen, until they came to Plymouth. There was little wherewith to make a wedding feast, but, at least a health could be given the bride and bridegroom in the elderblow wine, made a year before.
Indeed the great shock to the newcomers was the condition of affairs in the colony—the thinness, paleness and weakness of all, from want of sufficient food. The governor recalls for many a day the embarrassment felt by the Pilgrims that so little could be offered to the new arrivals, only fish and cold water. But the Anne, unlike the Fortune, brought some supplies and necessaries, so the passengers were not a drain upon the colony as in the case of the Fortune, but, rather a great help.