Aye, call it holy ground,
The soil where first they trod!
They have left unstained what there they found—
Freedom to worship God!
—Felicia Hemans.
8. THE FIRST THANKSGIVING DAY
The Pilgrims lived on the Mayflower until a log house, large enough for all, was built. This was surrounded by a high, wooden barricade to keep off the Indians and wild animals. Afterward the men built a house for each of the nineteen families. How their axes rang in the winter air, as they felled the trees for lumber to build these rude houses! How nobly the wives and mothers worked in the bitter cold of their uncomfortable homes, washing, ironing, baking, brewing, pounding the corn, spinning the cloth, and making everything, singing cheerfully all the while! How bravely the boys and girls tried to bear the cold and hunger without complaining, and in all their little ways helping their parents to build up a village out of the wild woods! What a hard time they had during that long and bitter winter! Often they did not have food enough. Many Pilgrims were taken ill, and one-half of them died before spring came. One day a kind Indian, who had learned English from some fishermen on the coast, suddenly walked out of the woods, saying, “Welcome, Englishmen! Welcome, Englishmen!” The Indians showed them how to plant corn with a fish or two in each hill to fertilize it; how to build a birch-bark canoe, snow-shoes, and moccasins. The Mayflower went to England and returned with plenty of food. In the summer fine crops were gathered. So in the fall, about a year after they had arrived, the Pilgrims had food enough to last all the next winter. They were happy then and said, “Let us thank God.” So a Thanksgiving meeting was held. The Pilgrims enjoyed their good dinner of wild turkey, and invited the friendly Indians to feast with them.
This winter no famine will haunt them,
No terror their thoughts will employ.
In the bleak little church in the village