50 



OLD PLYMOUTH TRAILS 



chickens on a farm, and more delicious than any 

 Christmas goose which might have been served 

 them in Holland or England. There were no 

 savages about Plymouth at the time and they 

 might have travelled the woods boldly, instead 

 of taking prudent council of their fears. But 

 they need not have gone so far as that for their 

 Christmas feast. The sandy flats of nearby 

 creeks were full of clams and the sea of fish. 

 The boar's head they might not have, but there 

 were splendid substitutes for it if they had cared 

 to make their Christmas feast of products of the 

 new land to which they had come. 



Against all this, no doubt, they sternly set 

 their faces, and indeed, instead of feasting and 

 good cheer on their December 25th, they set 

 soberly to work to build their first common house, 

 cutting greenery indeed, but not for decoration, 

 and dining abstemiously on the stores that they 

 had shipped months before in England. One can 

 but believe that had they for a few bright holi- 

 days put their fears behind them with their 

 solemnity and celebrated their own safe landing 

 with a few roasted turkeys, a few boiled cod and 

 some clam soup, eaten in an evergreen-decorated 

 cabin of their good ship, or about a barbecue 



