Relation.] Four days later three seals and a cod were caught; we may
assume that they furnished oil, meat and skins for the household.
About the same time, John Goodman and Peter Brown lost their way in
the woods, remained out all night, thinking they heard lions roar
(mistaking wolves for lions), and on their return the next day John
Goodman's feet were so badly frozen "that it was a long time before he
was able to go." [Footnote: _Ibid._] Wild geese were shot and
used for broth on the ninth of February; the same day the Common House
was set ablaze, but was saved from destruction. It is easy to imagine
the exciting effects of such incidents upon the band of thirteen boys
and seven girls, already enumerated. In July, the cry of "a lost
child" aroused the settlement to a search for that "unwhipt rascal,"
John Billington, who had run away to the Nauset Indians at Eastham,
but he was found unharmed by a posse of men led by Captain Standish.

To the women one of the most exciting events must have been the
marriage on May 22, 1621, of Edward Winslow and Mistress Susanna
White. Her husband and two men-servants had died since _The
Mayflower_ left England and she was alone to care for two young
boys, one a baby a few weeks old. Elizabeth Barker Winslow had died
seven weeks before the wedding day. Perhaps the Plymouth women
gossiped a little over the brief interval of mourning, but the
exigencies of the times easily explained the marriage, which was
performed by a magistrate, presumably the Governor.

Even more disturbing to the peaceful life was the first duel on June
18, between Edward Lister and Edward Dotey, both servants of Stephen
Hopkins. Tradition ascribed the cause to a quarrel over the attractive
elder daughter of their master, Constance Hopkins. The duel was fought
with swords and daggers; both youths were slightly wounded in hand and