girl whom any man might rejoice to make his wife; vigorous and wholesome
as well as comely, and endowed with a strong character, sweetened by a
touch of humor. John had never spoken to her of his love, any more than
Miles had; whether Priscilla's clear eyes had divined it, we know not; but
it is likely that she saw through the cooper and the soldier both.

The honest soldier was a fool, and saw nothing but Priscilla, and felt
nothing but his love for her. He took John Alden by the arm, and, leading
him apart into the forest, proposed to him to go to young Mistress Mullens
and ask her if she would become the wife of Captain Standish. Alden was
honest, too; but he was dominated by his older friend, and lacked the
courage to tell him that he had hoped for Priscilla for himself; he let
the critical moment for this explanation pass, and then there was nothing
for it but to accept the Captain's commission. We can imagine how this
situation would be handled by the analytic novelists of our day; how they
would spread Alden's heart and conscience out on paper, and dry them, and
pick them to pieces. The young fellow certainly had a hard thing to do; he
must tread down his own passion, and win the girl for his rival into the
bargain. To her he went, and spoke. But the only way he could spur himself
to eloquence was to imagine that he was Standish, and then woo her as he
would have done had Standish been he.

Maidens of rounded nature, like Priscilla, pay less attention to what a
man says than to the tones of his voice, the look in his eyes, and his
unconscious movements. As Alden warmed to his work, she glanced at him
occasionally, and not only wished that Heaven had made her such a man, but
decided that it had. So, when the youth had finished off an ardent
peroration, in which the Captain was made to appear in a guise of heroic
gallantry that did not suit him in the least, but which was the best John
could do for him: there was a pause, while the vicarious wooer wiped his