Once upon a time, some of the people of England were in great trouble. The king would not allow them to worship God in the way they thought right.
When they said they must do what they thought right, some of them were whipped, and some of them were put in prison.
At last they decided to leave England, and go to some other country. And they did go, in a ship, to a land where everybody dressed so differently, and spoke such a different language that the English boys and girls could not at first understand them. Holland was the name of the country. How many of you have seen pictures of the Dutch children, who live in Holland? How many of you have seen pictures of Dutch windmills?
Now in Holland, in the course of time, the Dutch and the English children became very good friends. Before very long the English boys and girls were talking Dutch as easily as if they had been born in Holland, and had never heard of any other country.
“My, my,” said good Father Brewster, the leader of the Puritans, as they were called. “This will never do. We want our children to talk English, and to love England and her ways”--for the Puritans still loved their country and their flag, just as we love our beautiful flag with the stars and stripes.
“They say,” said Father Brewster, “that far away over the ocean there is a land called America. Let us go to America. There we can build houses like those we had in England, and there our children can be brought up as English people. Yes, we will go to America.”
So the Puritans engaged two big ships, and started to sail from Holland to America. But one of the ships was too old and too worn out to cross the ocean, so all the people embarked on the other ship and sailed away.
The ship was called the Mayflower. The Mayflower was crowded, and it rocked so that the boys and girls became very tired. They wished they could get off and play on land once more.
But two beautiful presents came to interest and amuse them on the long voyage. And what do you think they were? Two little babies. One of them was named Peregrine White. The other was named Oceanus Hopkins, because he was born on the ocean.
One morning the children looked far away across the water, and they could see a dark line. It was the land--America.
The next day the sails of the ship were taken down, and the anchor was dropped in a little bay. Then some of the men climbed down from the ship into a small boat, and rowed to the shore to see what the place was like. In a little while they came back and called out, “Come, we will take you all ashore.”
Such a scurrying and hurrying as there was then! Back and forth the little boat went, until all the boys and girls, and men and women were on the shore.
It was a very cold day, the twenty-second of December, 1620. But they did not mind the cold.
In a little time the men had built some log houses, and soon there was a church. The black rock on which the Pilgrims first stepped can be seen to-day. It is called Plymouth Rock. The first girl to step upon Plymouth rock was Mary Chilton.
One day a visitor came to see the Pilgrims. He was an Indian. He had long, black hair. He was dressed in deerskin. He had a bow and arrows, to shoot birds and deer with. The Indian was very glad to see the white people. “Welcome, Englishmen,” he said. He stayed over night with the Pilgrims, and the next morning went away.
Soon he came back, bringing some friends with him.
When spring came, the Indians showed the Pilgrims how to catch eels, and where to find fish. They also gave the Pilgrims corn to plant. They showed them how to plant the corn, putting a fish in each hill to make the corn grow well.
All summer long the boys and girls played around the log-houses, and were very happy. There were beautiful wild-flowers, and bright-colored song-birds in the woods where they played. One flower that blossomed in the early spring they named the Mayflower, for the ship in which they had come. The trailing arbutus has been called the Mayflower to this day.
When the summer was ended, and all the corn and wheat were gathered in, the Pilgrims said, “Let us have Thanksgiving Day. We will thank God because he made the sun to shine, and the rain to fall, and the corn to grow.”
Then the mothers said, “We will have a Thanksgiving party, and invite the Indians. We will cook some of everything raised on the farms.”
The men shot deer, and wild geese, and wild turkeys for the dinner, and that is why we like to have roast goose or turkey for our Thanksgiving dinner.
At last the Thanksgiving Day came. In the morning everybody went to church. When they got home they found that all the Indians who had been invited had come.
The Indians brought five large deer. The party lasted for three days. At each meal, before they began to eat, the Pilgrims and the Indians thanked God.
In the evening the Indians sang and danced, and in the daytime they played games with the children.
At last the party was over. When the Indians were going home the Pilgrims said, “Every year we shall have a time to thank God for all He has done for us. You must come and help us thank Him.”
So every year the Pilgrims had their Thanksgiving Day. When other people came to this country they said they would have Thanksgiving too. So for nearly three hundred years we have had the glad
Thanksgiving Day. In what month does it come? On what day of November does it come this year?
