"Then they led him to their house and gave him a good dinner. Samoset, for that was his name, seemed in no hurry to leave. He stayed hour after hour. When night came the Pilgrims made up a warm bed by the side of the fireplace. He slept there all night, while the white men kept watch. They were not yet sure whether he meant to be their true friend. When morning came they gave him some presents and he went away proud and happy.
"He soon came back, bringing with him his friend Squanto and some other Indians.
"Squanto could talk more English than Samoset. He told the Pilgrims he had seen white men before and had lived with them. He had crossed the great ocean with a white captain who came to Plymouth with John Smith.
"The white people had treated him kindly and had afterwards brought him back to his old home. It was the very place where the Pilgrims were now living. When Squanto got back he found that his family had all died of a dreadful sickness. Many of his tribe had died from it at the same time. That was why the others had burned their homes and moved away from Plymouth.
"Squanto was a good friend to the white men. He came to live with them. He showed them how to plant corn so it would grow well. He put a dead fish in each hill to make the ground rich. He taught them the Indian ways of hunting and fishing. If it had not been for his kindness and knowledge the rest of the Pilgrims might have died for want of food.
"'God has sent us this friend,' thought the good people of Plymouth.
"Not far away from them lived an Indian chief named Massasoit. Squanto belonged to his tribe. 'We would like to see Massasoit,' said the chief men of the Pilgrims. They thought they would be much safer from attack if they made peace with the Indian chief who lived nearest them.
"One day the great chief came to Plymouth. He liked the white men. Before he went away he promised to be friendly to them. Massasoit kept his word and was a good and true friend to the Pilgrims until he died.
"One time news came to Plymouth that Massasoit was very sick. Some of his white friends went to see him. They found him stretched on a rough bed in his little hut. He had a fever. The hut was almost filled with Indians. The medicine men were there. They were making a fearful noise. They thought an evil spirit had taken hold of Massasoit. They were trying to drive it away with the noise. Then the chief would get well.
"The Indians have great faith in their medicine men. They are their priests, as well as their doctors.