PLYMOUTH MAYFLOWERS 15 



tales that Homer told, will last as long as books 

 are read. Plymouth may pass, as Troy did, but 

 the story of its heroes will, remain. Bradford's 

 book, which was our first, may well, at the end of 

 time, be rated our greatest. 



The trailing arbutus is peculiarly the flower of 

 Plymouth. Not that it grows there alone, indeed 

 within easy reach of the landing place of the 

 Pilgrims it is not easy now to find it. Once, no 

 doubt, it blossomed about the feet of the pioneers, 

 sending up its fragrance to them as they trod 

 sturdily along their first street and through their 

 new found fields that first spring after their ar- 

 rival. My, but their hearts must have been 

 homesick for the English May they had left be- 

 hind! and in memory of the pink and white of 

 the hawthorn hedges they called this pink and 

 white flower which peered from the oval-leaved 

 vines trailed about their feet, mayflower. It 

 surely must have grown on the slopes of Burial 

 Hill, down toward Town Brook, but now one will 

 look in vain for it there. I found my first blos- 

 som of the year by following the brook up to its 

 headwaters in Billington Sea. The brook itself 

 is greatly changed since Bradford's day. Its 

 waters are now held back by dams where it winds 



