Standing thus among the graves of the pioneer dead and putting all modern life behind him, one’s thoughts go back across the centuries and grasp, with a new sense of reality, the facts of Pilgrim history. The Forefathers, who did brave deeds and suffered much, and planted in the wilderness the seeds of a free nation, stand forth not as shadowy historical figures, but as living men. And thinking on such things, these words of the poet Pierpont find ready echo:—
“The Pilgrim spirit has not fled,
It walks in noon’s broad light;
And it watches the bed of the glorious dead,
With the holy stars, by night.
It watches the bed of the brave who have bled,
And shall guard this ice-bound shore,
Till the waves of the bay, where the Mayflower lay,
Shall foam and freeze no more!”