Little children, peeping in at the door of the cabin, shyly laid their offering of red clover and honeysuckle upon the sill. Many were the questions they asked of the smiling father of the new-born babe.
“Is it a boy or a girl,” asked Ambrose Viccars.
“I’m glad it is a girl,” said tiny Robert Ellis. “There will be somebody to play with me. Can she talk and eat? How soon will she be able to play Puss in Corner?”
Seven days had the little babe lain on her mother’s breast, and on the eighth day she was to be christened. The Sunday sun shed its gorgeous rays over the simple church, where the priest, clad in surplice and stole, awaited her coming. With the babe went Manteo of the Croatans, the faithful friend of the English, for he too was to receive baptism as Sir Walter Raleigh had commanded.
Hither had come the men of the colony clad in brightly hued doublet and hose, their wives and sisters wearing gowns with long pointed stomachers and high standing ruffs. Near the door was Winginia and his Catawbas, their long scalp-locks decorated with the feathers of the eagle. Grouped around the white-robed pastor stood Governor White, Roger Bailey and Joyce Archer, sponsors for Manteo. Behind them was Ananias Dare holding his little daughter.
Rising from his knees with the consecrated drops still glistening on his brow, Manteo turned to Dare and said:
“I too am a follower of the God of the English. The totem of His tribe is tattooed on my brow. Let me hold the little pale face to be received into the tribe.”
“Joyfully will I give her into your keeping,” replied her father. “She shall be as your daughter,” and he placed the babe in his arms.
Then came the sonorous voice of the priest:
“Virginia, I baptize thee in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. We receive this child into the congregation of Christ’s flock, and do sign her with the sign of the cross, in token that hereafter she shall not be ashamed to own Christ crucified, and manfully to fight under His banner against sin, the world, and the devil, and to continue Christ’s faithful soldier and servant unto her life’s end. Amen.”