Part 1 (1/2)

Three Young Pioneers.

by John Theodore Mueller.

CHAPTER I

ON THE ATLANTIC

”Come to me, children,” said Mrs. Bradley invitingly; ”I will be a mother to you, my darlings. You shall not be a burden to the community, but I will take care of you myself.”

Having said this, she seized the little boy and his sister and pressed them to her heart, while tears trickled down her full, rosy cheeks.

”Now you little sweethearts,” she said soothingly, ”you must not be afraid of me. Let me wipe your tears, and then you will come with me to my quarters, and I will give you something very, very good to eat. But by all means don't cry anymore.”

The children snuggled up to her and she took them by their hands, away from the crowd which had frightened them by their curious stares. There was a sigh of relief when the woman had promised to take care of them, for all on s.h.i.+pboard were glad that the two orphans had found a protector.

”G.o.d bless thee, Sister Clara,” said the minister; ”the Lord will reward thee, after thy goodness, both here and hereafter. Nor will He ever forsake or leave thee with the extra burden imposed on thee.”

”The children are no burden,” the woman replied; ”but rather a G.o.dsend, for both my husband and I have longed for two little angels like these long ago. How they will comfort our hearts in those weary hours of winter when the days are so short and the nights so long! And, please you, sir, there will be enough for us to eat, for the good Lord has blessed us abundantly. But I must not delay to attend to them; so kindly excuse me, I must go.”

The minister looked after her with grateful eyes, and then turned to the men and women standing around him.

”A pious woman she is,” he said; ”a rich reward will be hers for her great kindness.”

Then the congregation dispersed, each family departing for the cabins and quarters where they lodged during the long, long voyage over the Atlantic.

Traveling at that time was not as comfortable as it is now, for the conversation that we just related took place just three hundred years ago, to be exact in the year of our Lord 1630.

Since that time many and great changes have taken place in the world, and should the people of that time rise from their graves, they would be amazed at the transformation that has taken place.

At that time the voyage across the ocean was slow and dangerous; the s.h.i.+ps were small and propelled by the wind, so that when the weather was contrary, it took the emigrants a long time to reach America. Usually the food was poor, and quite often the water gave out, so that the people on s.h.i.+pboard suffered extremely. At the time of our story there were many who wished to settle in America, and in consequence the vessels were usually crowded to the utmost of their capacity. The result was that sickness spread among the pa.s.sengers, and many did not reach the country where they hoped to find liberty of conscience.

Among these was the mother of the two children, of whom we just spoke.

The boy's name was Fred, and he was eight years old; the name of his sister was Agnes, and she was seven.

They were strong and healthy children, but their frail mother could not stand the hards.h.i.+ps of the voyage. For six years she had lived in anxiety, for in 1624 her husband had left England to settle in the plymouth Colony, which the Pilgrims had established in 1620. He was very sincere in his faith, and rather than stay in good old England and do what his conscience forbade him, he joined the st.u.r.dy emigrants who left their homes for the Lord's sake, as they were fully convinced.

He arrived safely in Plymouth Colony and at first sent cheering letters to his wife. But suddenly these ceased, and she worried day and night over her far-away husband. She toiled diligently, so that her children did not suffer for lack of bread, but the worry broke her heart, and when she had saved a little sum of money, enough to pay for her voyage, she left England and joined the colonists who in ever larger numbers sought the land of freedom across the sea.

She did not live to set her foot on that strange, unknown land, but the good Lord called her out of all trouble, and she was buried in the sea.

Fred was old enough to realize what the death of his beloved mother meant, and Agnes, too, wept bitterly when they took away her mother and softly and slowly laid her away in the rolling waves.

The little band of emigrants at first worried considerably about what to do with the children. The majority of them were poor and blessed with large families so that they did not have any food to spare. Hence their joy was great when Clara Bradley volunteered to adopt the children as her own.

She herself was on the way to meet her husband, who two years before, in 1628, had left England with the Puritans to settle in the new territory granted by the King to the Ma.s.sachusetts Company. The Puritans, as you know, differed from the Pilgrims in many respects; in consequence, they wished to establish their own settlements far enough away from the Plymouth Colony to avoid misunderstanding and trouble.

As soon as Mr. Bradley had arrived in the new settlement he wrote a long letter to his wife in which he described the wonderful country in which he had found a new home. But he begged her to wait for some time until he had built a house, cleared a small piece of land, and made other preparations to welcome his young and beautiful wife.

In England Mr. Bradley had been a merchant, and his wife came from a rich family so that he did not care to burden her with the hards.h.i.+ps of primitive pioneer life. But she was a sensible woman, who was not afraid to work, and since she loved her husband dearly, she insisted that she would come and share with him the woe and weal of his life.