Sick at heart have I been, beyond the healing of friendship.’”
So Standish resolved to wed again. He had already taken a fancy to Miss Priscilla Mullins, one of the sweetest of the Puritan maidens; and he said:
“‘Oft in my lonely hours have I thought of this maiden, Priscilla.
She is alone in the world. Her father, and mother, and brother,
Died in the winter together. I saw her going and coming,
Now to the grave of the dead, and now to the bed of the dying;
Patient, courageous, and strong, and said to myself, that if ever
There were angels on earth, as there are angels in heaven,
Two have I seen and known; and the angel whose name is Priscilla
Holds in my desolate life the place which the other abandoned.’”