ELDER BREWSTER'S CHAIR.*

WHEN this old chair was new,

The manners of the times,

I now will bring to view;

Take heed unto my rhymes.
Two hundred years and more,
If history be true,

Since our forefathers came ashore,

When this old chair was new.

They reared an humble roof,

All pleasant to the sight;

Their ship was far aloof,

It caught on fire at night.
Cold lodgings on the ground

Oft made their hearts to rue;
While deadly arrows flew around,
When this old chair was new.

No neighbourhood was theirs,
Save natives of the land;
And many wants and cares,

And winter was at hand.

* The Chair of Elder Brewster, first pastor of the Pilgrims, is still preserved

in the Museum at Plymouth.

ELDER BREWSTER'S CHAIR.

Good neighbourhood's sincerity

They never failed to shew;

Their daily word was verity

When this old chair was new.

Their bread on waters cast

In future blessings found, While hardships knit them fast Still bade them yet abound. Full humble were their meals, Their dainties very few;

"Twas only ground nuts, clams, or eels, When this old chair was new.

Their greeting very soft,

Good-morrow very kind,

How sweet it sounded oft,

Before we were refined.

Humility their care,

Their failings very few;

My heart! how kind their manners were,
When this old chair was new.

59

THE MAIDEN PILGRIM'S PRAYER.

Ir may not be considered inappropriate to rescue from comparative oblivion a sweet prayer of one of the Maiden Pilgrims, by including it in these "Lays." It is found worked upon the sampler of Lora, daughter of the celebrated Captain Miles Standish, which is still preserved amongst the relics of the Pilgrims at the New Plymouth Museum.

Lora Standish is my name..

Lord, guide my heart that I may do Thy will,
And fill my hands with such convenient skill,
As may conduce to virtue void of shame,
And I will give the glory to Thy name.