jo Singing Valleys 



ries, strawberries, wild cherries and wild apples. In New Eng- 

 land, June meant "strawberry bread." August brought blue- 

 berry bread, and later cranberry bread, made after the same 

 recipe. 



When winter came, and the family gathered about the 

 hearth on which the fire blazed for light and warmth, the 

 men and boys busied themselves with their knives fashioning 

 wooden spoons, bowls and trenchers for the household, the 

 girls wove baskets of reeds, some tight enough to store the 

 shelled corn, others loose for sieves. And while the woman 

 stepped back and forth beside her great carding wheel, watch- 

 ful of the faces of her own with the firelight on them, and re- 

 membering the sea journey and the terror of the First Winter, 

 the wilderness so close and the future so uncertain, it is not un- 

 likely that she would start singing a paraphrase of the loyth 

 Psalm: 



Come now, give thanks unto the Lord, 



His graciousness endures alway. 

 We wandered in the wilderness 



Nor found a citie where to stay. 

 Then cried we to the Lord of Hosts 



To save our souls from dark despair 

 He brought us forth by His right way 



Into a land most wondrous fair. 



The gates of brass He hath broke down, 



The iron bars asunder torn, 

 To thirsty men He gives to drink, 



The hungry He doth feed with corne. 

 The wilderness doth at his Word 



Break forth in blossoms brave and gay, 

 Into the field the sower goes 



To scatter seed without delay. 



Whoso is wise will ponder well, 

 The loving kindness of our Lord. 



