PLYMOUTH MAYFLOWERS 139 



there. I found my first blossom of the year by 

 following the brook up to its headwaters in Bil- 

 lington Sea. The brook itself is greatly changed 

 since Bradford's day. Its waters are now held 

 back by dams where it winds through the sand 

 hills, and one mill after another sits by the side of 

 the ponds thus formed. Yet the " sea " itself must 

 be much the same in itself and its surroundings as 

 it was in Billington's time. Nor do I wholly believe 

 the legend which has it that Billington thought it 

 was a sea in very truth. It is too obviously a pond 

 to have deceived even this unsophisticated wan- 

 derer. It covers but a little over three hundred 

 acres including its islands and winding coves. 



I think, rather, its name was given in good- 

 natured derision of Billington and his idea of the 

 importance of his discovery, a form of quaint 

 humor not unknown in the descendants of the Pil- 

 grims to this day. Yet the waters of the little 

 winding pond are as clear as those of the sea which 

 breaks on the rocks of Manomet or the Gurnet, and 

 the hilly shores, close set with deciduous growth, 

 are almost as wild as they were then. The robins 

 that greeted the dawn on Burial Hill sang here at 



