FOREFATHERS' DAY 49 



cheery, bright red berries, even over on the sea- 

 ward slope of Manomet Head I found them, 

 snuggling in hollows where tiny rivulets trickle 

 down to the sea, though on the ridge above them 

 the oaks were dwarfed and storm-beaten till one 

 has difficulty in recognizing them for the variety 

 of tree that they are. 



It is easy to believe that down to the very rock 

 on which they landed crept the club-moss which 

 the descendants of the Pilgrims so soon learned 

 to call "evergreen." Tons of it we use today in 

 our Christmas decorations, nor does the supply 

 from the Massachusetts woods seem to diminish, 

 ground-pine, common, and "coral" evergreen, all- 

 varieties of the club-moss, that are commonest 

 out of the dozen that we have in all. Just up 

 those dark gullies Town Brook would have led 

 them, as it will lead anyone today, to a country 

 that now, as it was then, is rich in winter beauties 

 of the woodland with which the exiles might well 

 have decorated the cabin of the Mayflower. 

 And just within the woods in any direction 

 waited for them, had they had the will and the 

 wisdom to seek them, all kinds of Christmas 

 cheer. Deer were there, wild turkeys in great 

 flocks and two varieties of grouse as tame as 



