Their peas and some of their other crops did not do so very well the first season; but in the autumn it was found that there was a fine harvest of maize. This filled their hearts with joy.
While living in Holland the Pilgrims had seen the Dutch keep a Thanksgiving day every autumn. The people of Plymouth thought that after their crops had been gathered and their hard work was finished for the season, it would be a good thing for them to have a time of joy and thanksgiving. So Governor Bradford sent out a company of men to shoot wild turkeys and other game, and the women set to work to cook all sorts of good things, so that they might feast and frolic for a week. He sent an invitation to the Indian neighbors to enjoy the fun with them.
Wishing to show their good will, and to help with the Thanksgiving feast, the Indian guests went into the woods and killed for the table five deer and much other game. As the Pilgrims had not yet become skilled enough hunters to get much large game, they were very grateful for this present from their friends.
About ninety Indians came with their chief. They stayed for three days. The time was passed in wrestling, shooting at marks, and in other sports. By the time the party was over there was a better feeling between the reds and the whites, and it seemed that they might afterward live in peace.
By the end of a year the people had built seven houses for homes, and four other buildings for the use of all. But their worries and sufferings were by no means ended. Other ships came from England with many people but no food. The Pilgrims could not raise enough grain to make bread for all.
There were plenty of fish, clams, oysters, and lobsters in the sea; and wild grapes, plums, and berries in the woods. Yet during the next two years the people of Plymouth sometimes could scarcely keep from starving. For four months, at one time, they lived almost entirely upon sea food. Only once in a while could they find some nuts or shoot some game in the woods.
During those trying days all that the Pilgrims had learned in Holland helped them a great deal. When they reached this country, before they could do anything else, they needed to make tool handles and get their tools ready for work.
The ship was small and crowded, and so it was not possible to bring all the furniture and the hundreds of articles, both little and large, which they would really need. They had to make not only their houses, but all these other things as quickly as possible. There were no mills, no stores, no shops; they could not run down town to get every little thing needed.
Finally their clothes began to wear out. What could they do? In Holland they had learned from the Dutch women to raise flax and spin it into beautiful even threads, and later to weave these threads into good linen cloth. (The Spinner. Maes.) So now the Pilgrims raised flax and sheep, and in the winter time, when there was not much other work to do, the women busied themselves spinning flax and wool into thread and yarn, which they dyed themselves. This thread and yarn they wove into cloth and knit up into warm stockings and mittens.
