have provided material stanch enough to build up the framework of our
nation. One might not have enjoyed living with them; but we may be
heartily glad that they lived; and we should be the better off if more of
their stamp were alive still.

But these iron people had their tender and sentimental side as well, and
the self-command which they habitually exercised made the softening, when
it came, the more beautiful. One of the love romances of this little
colony has come down to us, and may be taken as the substantial truth; it
has entered into our literature and poetry, and touches us more nearly
even than the tale of Pocahontas. Its telling by our most popular poet has
brought it to the knowledge of a greater circle of readers than it could
otherwise have reached; but the elaboration of his treatment could add
nothing to the human charm of it, or sharpen our conception of the leading
characters in the drama. Miles Standish had been a soldier in the
Netherlands before joining the Pilgrims, and to him they gave the military
guardianship of the colony, with the title of captain. He was then about
thirty-six years of age, a bluff, straightforward soldier, whom a life of
hardship had made older than his years. He had known little of women's
society, but during the long voyage he came to love Priscilla Mullens, and
when the spring came to the survivors at Plymouth, he wished to marry her.
But he would not trust, as Othello did, to the simple art of a soldier to
woo her; and Priscilla was probably no Desdemona. But there was a youth
among the colonists, just come of age, whom Standish had liked and
befriended, and who, though a cooper and ship-carpenter by trade, was
gifted with what seemed to Standish especial graces of person and speech.
Alden had not been one of the original pilgrims; he had been hired to
repair the "Mayflower" while she lay at Southampton, and decided to sail
on her when she sailed; perhaps with the hope of making his fortune in the
new world, perhaps because he wished to go where Priscilla went. She was a