A Little Maid of Province Town Part 20

"Can we not do that, Aunt Martha, when May is really here?" asked Anne.

"Perhaps," replied Aunt Martha, "if the minister sees no objection, and if we get good news before that time, why, a May-day party would be a pretty thing. The boys could put up the May-pole near the spring, and there will be all sorts of wild things in blossom by that time."

When they started off for the marshes Anne told Amanda what her Aunt Martha had said, and Mrs. Cary and Amos were greatly interested. Amos said that he knew where he could get a fine pole, and Mrs. Cary said that the little girls could gather flowers and fasten them to the pole with vines and strings before it was set up.

"And there must be a big wreath fastened on top of the pole," said Mrs.

Cary, "and by rights there should be long bright streamers coming down from the top for each to hold and twist in and out as they dance around it."

"Can we not take long strings and fasten flowers about them?" asked Anne.

"Why, yes, indeed!" replied Mrs. Cary. "'twill be better than any bright ribbons. Now we must surely have a May-day party. Near the spring will be the very place."

As they searched for thoroughwort, and picked the tender spruce and pine tips, they all talked of the coming May-day, but Amos soon began to look about for a good place to make his fire. He had brought the fish in a covered basket, and said that he knew he could cook it as well as if he had a kettle to boil it in. He made a fire at a little distance from the woods, and then busied himself in putting up two crotched sticks, one on each side of the fire; a third stick rested across these two, and from it hung the fish, directly over the blaze.

Amos watched his fire very carefully, and kept a brisk blaze until the fish began to grow brown and steam. Then he declared that it was nearly cooked, and so let his fire die down until only a bed of smouldering coals remained.

They all thought the fish tasted as good as if it had been cooked in a pan or kettle, and Mrs. Cary had a fine cake of Indian meal, and with Anne's mola.s.ses cake they all said that it was the best dinner any one could have. The April sky was soft and blue, the sun warm, and Amos was sure that in a few days he could go in swimming.

"And it's only the nineteenth of April," said Anne.

Afterward these children always remembered the nineteenth of April, and would say, "That was the day we had our picnic at the marshes," and on that day the minutemen were gathered at Lexington and Earl Percy was urging his tired men to meet them, and the great battle which did so much to settle the fate of the Americans was fought.

But the people at Province Town did not know of this until long afterward.

If Anne had known on the day when she was so happy, thinking of the May-day to come, and watching Amos cook the fish over the fire, that her dear father with other brave men was at Cambridge on guard waiting for the British, who were determined to make a stand in their flight from the minutemen, and that on that very day her good friends, the Freemans, were hurrying away toward Watertown to escape the dangers of war which now centered about Boston, she would not have cared so much about the May-day plans.

"It would be well to ask all the grown people as well as the children to the May party," said Mrs. Cary, as the little party made its way toward home that afternoon. "I do not think there has ever been a May-day party before in the town, and it will be good for all of us to try and be cheerful."

Anne and Amanda looked at her wonderingly. The world seemed a very cheerful and happy place to both the little girls, and they could not know how anxious the older people were that the trouble with England might soon come to an end.

CHAPTER XVI

THE MAY PARTY

"A May-day party, eh?" said Elder Haven, when Anne and Amanda told him of the plan. "Why, I think it an excellent idea. It will surely be a pleasant sight to see the children dance about the May-pole, and I shall like well to come."

After Elder Haven had approved the parents could find nothing wrong in the idea, and all the children went Maying for arbutus and trailing evergreens to wind about the pole.

Early on the morning of May-day Amos and Jimmie were at the spring with a long smooth pole. The other children soon followed them, and Mrs.

Starkweather came to show them how to fasten the wreath at the top and the long strings covered with vines and blossoms which Anne and Amanda, with the help of Mrs. Stoddard and the Starkweather boys, had made ready the day before.

"We used often to dance about a May-pole when I was a girl in Barnstable,"

said Mrs. Starkweather. "To be sure it is an old English custom, and just now England does not seem our friend, but 'Tis a pleasant custom that we do well to follow. I know a little song that we all used to sing as we took hold of the bright streamers."

"I know that song," said Dannie; "you call it 'May Song.'"

"Why, yes," said Mrs. Starkweather, "I'm sure all my boys know it. I've sung them all to sleep by it; and 'Tis one I sing about my work, for 'Tis a cheerful and a merry lilt."

"It goes this way," said Dannie, and began to sing:

"Birds in the tree; Humming of bees, Wind singing over the sea; Happy May-days, Now do we praise, As we dance gladly round the May tree."

As Dannie sang his mother and brothers joined in with him, and the other children listened in delight.

"Can you not sing it when we do 'dance round the May tree,' Aunt Starkweather?" asked Anne; "and if Dannie will sing it over to us a few times I am sure that we can all sing it, and then Elder Haven can hear us."

Dannie liked to sing, and he sang the little verse over and over again until all the children knew it, and until his mother said that they must all run home and make themselves tidy, and then come back, as the dance around the May-pole was to be at two o'clock.

"I do wish that Uncle Enos could see it," said Anne, as she put on her new white pinafore over her plaid dress, and fastened the coral beads around her neck; "I know well he would like to hear the song."

"The boats went out early and may get in in good time," said Aunt Martha.

"Mrs. Starkweather says that there is always a Queen of the May--a little girl whom the other children choose to wear a wreath on her head, and whatever the Queen tells them to do they must do all May-day," said Anne, as she and Mrs. Stoddard walked toward the spring, "but I do think the other children have forgotten all about it."

"What makes the children want to choose one to obey, I wonder," said Mrs.

Stoddard, smiling down at Anne.

"It must be because 'Tis a little girl whom they all like, and who is always kind and pleasant to the other children," said Anne. "If 'twas a King of the May we would all want Jimmie Starkweather; but there are not so many girls as boys."

The other children were all at the spring with bunches and wreaths of flowers, and Anne was surprised to see that a mound of sand had been heaped up and covered with pine boughs.

"What is that for?" she asked.

"That's a throne for the Queen," said Dannie Starkweather.

Mrs. Cary and Mrs. Starkweather were talking with the children, and as Anne came near they formed into a little circle round her, joining hands and singing:

"Our May-queen, Queen of the May, We're ready to serve you All this bright day."

Then Willie Starkweather, who was only four years old, took Anne's hand and led her to the "throne" and said, "You mutht thit down, Anne," for Willie lisped, "and I'll put the crown on."

So Anne sat down on the pine-covered sand-heap, and Willie put a wreath of fragrant arbutus on her head.

Captain Enos, hurrying up from the sh.o.r.e, thought it the prettiest sight he had ever seen. The tall pole, covered with green vines and bright blossoms, the children forming in a circle round Anne, and the pleasant May skies over all, seemed to the sailor to make a picture worth remembering.

Then came the dance round the May-pole and the song. By this time, the other men had come up from the sh.o.r.e; Elder Haven was there, and every one in the little settlement had gathered at the spring. It was a circle of happy faces, and when the time came for them all to start for their homes, each one said that Province Town had never seen so pretty a sight.

"'Tis something we shall like to think about," said Elder Haven to Jimmie Starkweather, as the two walked toward the Elder's house.

Anne was sure that it was the happiest day in her life. "I wish my father could have seen me, Aunt Martha," she said, as they walked toward home.

"'Twould please him well to know the children like me. 'Tis only a year since they did scorn me at the spring."

"You must forget about that, Anne," said Aunt Martha. "They chose you for Queen because you have been a pleasant child. You see, it matters not what they said before they knew you."

"Aunt Martha!" exclaimed Anne, suddenly looking up toward the harbor, "see! There are two big s.h.i.+ps coming down the bay."