PRISCILLA SPINNING
(3298. Priscilla Spinning. Barse.) In this picture we see a Puritan maiden sitting near the cozy fireplace, spinning with a spinning wheel which she runs with her foot. She has her Bible in her lap, probably so that she may once in a while read a verse or two to be thinking about as she works.
Thus we might talk on and on, without being able to tell all about the Pilgrim forefathers and foremothers and what we owe them. Stories and poems have been written about them, and artists of many countries have painted us beautiful pictures of them. We can not look over the books in any good library without finding much about the brave and upright, God-loving Pilgrims. We can not go into any of the large galleries where hang rows and rows of fine paintings, and not see pictures of Pilgrim scenes. As you grow older you will hear more and more of them.
Some day you may be able to go to Plymouth, the very town which these brave people began to build almost three hundred years ago. There you will have pointed out to you the very Plymouth Rock on which they landed; perhaps you will visit Burial Hill, where sleep their noble dead; you will see the first street laid out, the spot where the first house was built, and the monument erected to the Pilgrims’ memory. The townspeople will take pride in telling you how long it took to build the marble giant, and how much money it cost.
They will direct you to Pilgrim Hall, which is filled with things which were once used by the Pilgrims, or have something to do with them. Here you may see among other things a chest and a chair which once belonged to Elder Brewster, whose black-gowned figure we see in so many pictures, Governor Carver’s chair, a dinner pot, and the sword of Miles Standish. Here, too, hang a number of the Pilgrim pictures, which our country wishes to keep forever, if possible.
SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS
Take plenty of time. The first of November is none too soon to begin.
Tell a little each day, showing but one picture at one lesson (excepting pictures which are in some way closely related; as, for instance, the Comanche and the Arapahoe Indian Camps, which are but different views of everyday Indian life).