"Has he no time for such things, as you call it,

before he is married,

Would he be likely to find it, or make it, after the wedding?

That is the way with you men; you don't understand us, you cannot.

When you have made up your minds, after thinking of this one and that one,

Choosing, selecting, rejecting, comparing one

with another,

Then you make known your desire, with abrupt and sudden avowal,

And are offended and hurt, and indignant per

haps, that a woman

Does not respond at once to a love that she

never suspected,

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 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, per

suading, 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 pedi

gree 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

defrauded,

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 gen

tle 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, court

ly, 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 over

running 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

bewildered,

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 apocalypti

cal splendors,

Sank the City of God, in the vision of John the Apostle,