chicory, Queen Anne's lace, purple asters, golden-rod and the
beautiful sabbatia or "sentry" which is still found on the banks of
the fresh ponds near the town and is called "the Plymouth rose."
Edward Winslow tells [Footnote: Relation of the Manners, Customs,
etc., of the Indians.] of the drastic use of this bitter plant in
developing hardihood among Indian boys. Early in the first year one of
these fresh-water ponds, known as Billington Sea, was discovered by
Francis Billington when he had climbed a high hill and had reported
from it "a smaller sea." Blackberries, blueberries, plums and cherries
must have been delights to the women and children. Medicinal herbs
were found and used by advice of the Indian friends; the bayberry's
virtues as salve, if not as candle-light, were early applied to the
comforts of the households. Robins, bluebirds, "Bob Whites" and other
birds sang for the pioneers as they sing for the tourist and resident
in Plymouth today. The mosquito had a sting,--for Bradford gave a
droll and pungent answer to the discontented colonists who had
reported, in 1624, that "the people are much annoyed with musquetoes."
He wrote: [Footnote: Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation,
Bk. II.] _"They_ are too delicate and unfitte to begin new
plantations and colonies that cannot enduer the biting of a
muskeet. We would wish such to keep at home till at least they be
muskeeto proof. Yet this place is as free as any and experience
teacheth that ye land is tild and ye woods cut downe, the fewer there
will be and in the end scarce any at all." The _end_ has not yet
come!

Good harvests and some thrilling incidents varied the hard conditions
of life for the women during 1621-2. Indian corn and barley furnished
a new foundation for many "a savory dish" prepared by the housewives
in the mortar and pestles, kettles and skillets which they had brought