﻿184 PICTORIAL MISCELLANY. 



and cultivated, the Indians to be conciliated, and the comforts and 

 delights of a home to be brought together in the bosom of the dreary 

 wilderness. All helped in the great work ; delicate women and lit- 

 tle children, as well as the robust and hardy men. 



Mr. Morton was one of the most active and enterprising of these 

 brave men, and his opinion was much valued by them. He was no 

 richer than the rest of them, for what little of his wealth he had been 

 able to remove from England he had shared with his less fortu- 



c 



nate comrades, and he was happier in supplying their necessities 

 than in ministering to his own ease. Henry was of course deprived 

 of all the luxuries which had hitherto surrounded him, but his 

 fond father strove to shield him from the hardships to which most 

 of these poor children were exposed ; and though the little boy some- 

 times asked for his rocking-horse or nurse, or cried to go back, he 

 was easily pacified when his father explained, in a simple manner, 

 suited to his capacity, the reasons for which they had quitted Eng- 

 land. 



There was one of Henry's pets still left to him, however, in the 

 form of a Newfoundland puppy, whose mother had belonged to Mr. 

 Morton for many years ; and Henry, who had been very fond of Fi- 

 delle, now changed his affection to little Ponto. The dog was equal- 

 ly fond of him, and these little playmates were almost continually 

 together. 



The settlement progressed rapidly, and soon every one had a log 

 house and some few comforts about him ; but still their sufferings 

 were great, and they were at one time reduced to five kernels of corn 

 per day for each person. Winter was just commencing, the ground 

 was frozen hard, and there would be no hopes of cultivating the land 

 for many months. But they did not starve, for their cause was a 

 righteous one, and they were prospered in it. 



Vessels came from England with provisions and cattle or live 

 stock, as they are called, and the men, in what time they could 

 spare from their building operations, killed bears, deer, and other of 

 the animals which abounded in the thick woods around them. 

 There are many pretty ponds about Plymouth, and of one of them 

 it is related that a party of hunters being in the woods, one of 

 them, named Billington, ascended a little hill, and looked about 



