The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-05-10
FIVE KERNELS OF CORN.
When the Plymouth Pilgrims Came Near
Starving.

This year will mark the tercentenary of
the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth,
Mass, which occurred in December. 1920.
The Boston Post is publishing articles
dealing with this subject. One of the
latest accompanies the reproduction of an
old woodcut entitled "The Five Kernels
of Corn which relates to an incident in
the early history of the colony. The Post
says: According to the story, starvation
so menaced the colony in the summer of
1923 that only a pint of corn was left
This was solemnly divided among the
desparing colonists, five kernels being
allotted to each. 1t is one of those stories
for which there is no evidence either for
or. against, but Goodwin, in his The
Puritan Republic" makes the pertinent
suggestion that five kernels of corn apiece
would hardly have done anyone any good
and that the Pilgrims, when they got down
to their last pint, would have been
much more apt to keep that small amount
intact for cases of sickness
That starvation did come nearer to
wipng out the colony in 1923 than it had
| in the previous summer, we do know
We have Winslow's word for it, that he
| SdW ineu Staggering iibm Ncdh1ltSS III
the Plymouth fields To those who had
come over in the Mayfower, it must
sometimes have seemed that a malignant
power had determined to wreck their
hopeful enterprise They had barely sur
vived the frightful epidemic of the first
| Plymouth winter. Then they had been
scourged by famine in 1922 And the fol
lowing summer, they suffered fortunes
| from hunger But they carried on, as
they had always carried on. and when
this last decisive t.ial of all had been
put behind them, they were never again
to stand face to face with disaster
They had planted their seed in April
of 1923, in good weather The corn and
the vegetables came up well, and tire
healthy rows of young green leaves were
reassuring sight. More seed had been
planted than in the previous years, and
never had the fields looked better during
the first weeks of growth.
But there came a day that summer
when no rain fell, and there followed,
day after day, cloudess weather. For
the first few days, little thought was
given to this absence of rain. 1t was
uncomfortable hot. but presumably the
men and women and children were glad
to have the bright sunlight pouring down
But week of fair weather heightened
into two, and three, and finally to SIX
The very ground under their feet seemed
to have lost all its vitality. 1t was, says
Bradford, like withered hay. The corr
dropped, changed color and seemed ut
terly lost. The beans looked as parcheC
as though fire had swept across thu
field Then, for the first and only time
gloom was nearly universal. The mel
who had made light of all their Garlic
privations and perils now went about Will
grave faces The most optimistic ant
stout hearted of them all, men who hat
not covered when illness swept through
the settlement or when Indians wer
dreaded, now had no spirit left to 60 on
.. 1t seemed at last as though the fer
spirit in that little band had been quenct
, ed
They had done all that men might dc
| Their God was now their sole refuge
/, A day was set apart for "a solemn da
of humiliation All the colonists me
q in their room for public worship an
fell upon their knees, beseeclling God t
: answer their humble prayers.
When they gathered in the fort tn
{ skies were as implacably balefM as the