I. The Battle of the Tubs 1 II. The Launch of the Pinnace 19 III. The Sword of Standish 27 IV. The Lilies of France 41 V. An Awful Danger 54 VI. The First Encounter 63 VII. Clarke's Island 73 VIII. Burying Hill 86 IX. Rose 94 X. A Terrible Night 104 XI. The Colonists of Cole's Hill 115 XII. The Headless Arrow 134 XIII. The Captain's Promotion 141 XIV. Second Marriages 151 XV. Samoset 164 XVI. Priscilla Molines' Letter 176 XVII. An International Treaty 184 XVIII. The Last Link Broken 197 XIX. Sowed and Reaped in One Day 205 XX. Funeral-baked Meats and Marriage Feasts 213 XXI. An Affair of Honor 224 XXII. The Captain's Pipe 236 XXIII. "Speak for Yourself, John!" 243 XXIV. The Mysterious Grave 253 XXV. A Little Discipline 266 XXVI. The First Thanksgiving Day of New England 276 XXVII. A Love Philtre 288 XXVIII. Philip De La Noye 296 XXIX. Keeping Christmas 311 XXX. A Soldier's Instinct 319 XXXI. A Pot of Broth 343 XXXII. The Sunset Gun 351 XXXIII. Pecksuot's Knife 356 XXXIV. The Wolf at the Door 370 XXXV. The Brides' Ship 376 XXXVI. Marriage Bells 385 XXXVII. "And to be Wroth with one we Love!" 395 XXXVIII. Barbara 406 XXXIX. A Military Wedding 416 XL. "Parting is such Sweet Sorrow!" 420
It was also the twenty-third day of November in the year of our Lord 1620; but this latter fact was either unknown or matter of profound indifference to the two-and-twenty women who stood ready to make the day memorable in the world's history, while the fact of Monday was to them one of paramount importance.
The answer is duplex: first, the two-and-twenty women were not aware of their own importance, nor could guess that History would ever concern herself with the date of their present undertaking; and second, for a reason whose roots are prehistoric, for they spring from the unfathomable depths of the feminine soul wherein abides inherently the love of purity, of order, and of tradition. Yes, in two hundred and seventy years the face of Nature, of empires, and of peoples has changed almost beyond recognition in this our New World; but the grand law at whose practical establishment in the New World we now assist, abides to-day:--
Does some caviler here suggest that although the human female soul is embodied in the children of Ham, Shem, and Japhet, the mighty law referred to is binding only upon that Anglo-British-Saxon-Norman division of Japhet's daughters domiciled in and emanating from the British Isles? Let us proudly reply that in considering the result of a process we consider the whole; and let us meekly add that to our mind the Anglo-British-Saxon-Norman woman, perfected under an American sky, is the woman of the world; and finally, let us point to the two-and-twenty heroines of that Monday as chief among American women, for they were the Pilgrim Mothers of the New World.