Uncle Sam smiled as he looked at the faces of the wondering children.
"This was the way of it. Two babies had come to the Pilgrims on their way to America. One was born in mid-ocean, so they called him Oceanus. The other was a little girl who first saw the daylight when her people were near the shores of their new home.
"'We will name her Peregrine,' said her parents. 'Peregrine means wanderer, and she is a little wanderer, without doubt.'
"How good it must have seemed to the women and children when they left the small, close cabin and the dirty ship. They had to live on board, however, until the men had built a long, rough house on the hillside. The whole party would have to live in this till better homes could be made for each family.
"Not long after the big house was done, the captain of the ship said:
"'I cannot wait around here any longer. I must go back to England. Take all your goods from my ship as quickly as possible.'"
"I should think the Pilgrims would have hated to see the ship leave," said Joe. "If they got homesick they couldn't go back to England, no matter how bad they felt."
"They were not the kind of people to give up," replied Uncle Sam. "Before they went on shore they had a meeting in the cabin of the Mayflower. They made some good laws for themselves. They all promised to obey them. Those promises were very helpful when troubles came.
"And troubles did come, too! The first winter at Plymouth, which was the name they gave their new town, seemed to them long and very cold. It was not really a very hard winter for New England, but the climate from which they had come was much milder. In Old England they were not used to so much cold, snow and ice as they now had, and they did not know how to protect themselves properly.