Bvolution ot Iborticulture 



comfort their hearts." Accordingly, in a 

 few days afterwards, the Mayflower had 

 brought the company to the much desired 

 haven, to keep the Sabbath by their 

 future home. The first needful operations 

 on shore were at once entered upon. 

 The company was divided into nineteen 

 families, and a corresponding number of 

 plots for dwellings and gardens were laid 

 out on the opposite sides of a way along 

 the northern side of the brook. A plat- 

 form was laid for ordnance, and a building 

 twenty feet square, for common occupa- 

 tion and for a storehouse, was erected. 



The sad tale of the sickness, due to 

 exposure, improper and deficient food, 

 followed by extraordinary mortality, and 

 the consequent reduced condition of the 

 colony, is generally familiar, and does 

 not here require comment. In spite of 

 the length of the winter, which provi- 

 dentially had not the usual severity, a 

 very early spring was most heartily 

 welcomed by the much afflicted company. 



" Saturday, the 3d of March, the wind 

 60 



