THRESHING
From a photograph taken by Mrs. Louise Seymour Houghton, and used by her kind permission.
In the East the grain is threshed by the trampling of beasts, or sometimes, as in this picture, by a rude kind of threshing wheel. The wheels are carried in the framework on which the man is sitting. Sometimes a sledge with iron or stone teeth driven into the bottom is used.
"Yes," said mamma, "but they had the brave Miles Standish to protect them. At one time, so the story goes, they were almost starving. The winter was coming on, and they did not know what to do. So they set apart a certain day to fast and ask God's help in their distress. I am not sure that it is true, but we will suppose that a little girl and boy like you had climbed the hill to gather a few sticks of wood for the fire. We will suppose that the little girl was looking out to sea, and suddenly she cried, 'Oh, John, what can that be, is it a sail?'
"And we will suppose that John said, 'Oh, no, Priscilla, that is nothing but a seagull; there is no ship coming.'
"But Priscilla insisted.
"'It is, John, it is a sail.' And John looked again and cried, 'Yes! yes! it is, it is a sail!'