Excerpt from A Pilgrim Maid: A Story of Plymouth Colony in 1620 This story is like those we hear of our neighbours to-day: it is a mixture of fact and fancy. The aim in telling it has been to present Plymouth Colony as it was in its first three years of existence; to keep to possibilities, even while inventing inci dents. Actual events have been transferred from a later to an earlier year when they could be made useful, to bring them within the story's compass, and to develop it. For instance, John Billington was lost for five days and died early, but not as early as in the story. Stephen Hopkins was fined for allowing his servants to play shovelboard, but this did not happen till some time later than 1622. Stephen Hopkins was twice married; records show that there was dissen sion; that the second Wife tried to get an inheritance for her own children, to the injury of the son and daughter of the first Wife. Facts of this sort are used, enlarged upon, construed to cause, or altered to suit, certain results. But there is fidelity to the general trend of events, above all to the spirit of Plymouth in its beginnings. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.