Does not attain at a bound the height to which you have been climbing.

This is not right nor just: for surely a woman's affection

Is not a thing to be asked for, and had for only the

asking.

When one is truly in love, one not only says it, but shows it.

Had he but waited awhile, had he only showed that he loved me,

Even this Captain of yours-who knows?-at last might have won me,

Old and rough as he is; but now it never can happen."

Still John Alden went on, unheeding the words

of Priscilla,

Urging the suit of his friend, explaining, persuading, expanding;

Spoke of his courage and skill, and of all his battles in Flanders,

How with the people of God he had chosen to suffer affliction,

How, in return for his zeal, they had made him Captain of Plymouth;

He was a gentleman born, could trace his pedigree

plainly

Back to Hugh Standish of Duxbury Hall, in Lancashire, England,

Who was the son of Ralph, and the grandson of Thurston de Standish;

Heir unto vast estates, of which he was basely de

frauded,

Still bore the family arms, and had for his crest a

cock argent

Combed and wattled gules, and all the rest of the blazon.

He was a man of honor, of noble and generous

nature;

Though he was rough, he was kindly; she knew how during the winter

He had attended the sick, with a hand as gentle as

woman's;

Somewhat hasty and hot, he could not deny it, and

headstrong,

Stern as a soldier might be, but hearty, and placable always,

Not to be laughed at and scorned, because he was little of stature;

For he was great of heart, magnanimous, courtly,

courageous;

Any woman in Plymouth, nay, any woman in

England,

Might be happy and proud to be called the wife of Miles Standish!

But as he warmed and glowed, in his simple and

eloquent language,

Quite forgetful of self, and full of the praise of his

rival,

Archly the maiden smiled, and, with eyes overrunning with laughter,

Said, in a tremulous voice, "Why don't you speak for yourself, John?"

IV.

JOHN ALDEN.

INTO the open air John Alden, perplexed and be

wildered,

Rushed like a man insane, and wandered alone by the sea-side;

Paced up and down the sands, and bared his head to the east-wind,

Cooling his heated brow, and the fire and fever

within him.

Slowly as out of the heavens, with apocalyptical splendors,