OUR PILGRIM FOREFATHERS

THANKSGIVING STUDIES

BY

LOVEDAY A. NELSON

A. FLANAGAN COMPANY
CHICAGO

Copyright 1904 by A. Flanagan Company.

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

OUR PILGRIM FOREFATHERS

THANKSGIVING STUDIES

You often hear people talking of the President of our country. Doubtless most of you know him by name. Some of you may have seen him.

You also know that once in every four years we have an election day, when papa votes for the man whom he thinks best for President. Then the one who gets the most votes becomes our President for four years.

If this man makes a good President, he is sometimes chosen again for another four years, or term, as we call it. But if he has not pleased the people, they choose some one else, anybody else, next election day. We never know who will be our next President until he is elected. One term he is a man from one part of the country; the next term he may be one from a far distant part. In our country we think that this way is best.

It is not so in every country. In some countries, instead of a president there is a king, who expects to be king as long as he lives. At his death his son becomes the king. If the king happens to be a good one, it is well for the country and for the people; but if he chances to be a wicked, cruel one, the poor people have a sorry time as long as he lives.

When Sunday comes, John goes with his mamma and papa to the Methodist Church. Perhaps Mary goes with her parents to the Baptist. Gretchen may prefer to go to the Lutheran Church, and Margaret to the Roman Catholic. In our country we think this quite right. We like to see people going to the church that helps them most.

As it costs much money to build churches and pay the preachers, people must give money or there can be no churches. John may want to give his pennies to the Methodist Church or Sunday-school. Mary would rather give hers to the Baptist. Gretchen’s money is given to the Lutheran, and Margaret’s to the Roman Catholic. In our country we think this, too, quite right. No one forces us to give money to any church. When we have any to give, we may do with it as we choose.

Neither is this true in all countries. In some lands where there are kings instead of presidents, the kings have sometimes said that all the people must go to a certain church, and that they must pay that church money. Some of the kings have forbidden the people to have any other churches.

Sometimes there have been people who loved another church which they were unwilling to give up. Sometimes there have been kings who have put these people in prison and done other harsh things in trying to force them to worship God according to the king’s will.

We shall learn of some unhappy people who lived in a country ruled at times by just such hard-hearted kings. When we know of some of the troubles and great hardships through which they passed in trying to pray to God and serve him as they thought right, we shall surely love them and always remember their noble deeds.

These people lived far across the Atlantic Ocean, in a country called England, where the king and all the people speak the English language. We learned our English from them.

CHILDREN OF CHARLES I

Look at the picture (Children of Charles I.) of these three children with their pet dog. You can tell that the dog is their playfellow and that he loves them, by the way he has taken his place at their side, and by the loving, trustful manner in which he looks up into the face of the boy whose hand rests on his head. The baby (Baby Stuart), whose picture alone you often see, and whom you hear called “Baby Stuart,” clasps a big red apple in his chubby hands.

These things would make us think that these are ordinary children, just like you, with a love for fun and frolic, and an eye for bright things and a taste for goodies.

Let us look at their clothes. This picture is a copy of a fine painting in rich colors. If we could go to the big gallery where the painting hangs, we should see that Mary, the sister, is dressed in beautiful white satin; Charles, the elder brother, has on an elegant scarlet gown; while the dear little baby, James, wears a dainty blue gown. The quaint, rich dresses of stiff, costly goods, covered with fine needle-work, would convince us that these are not ordinary children. Indeed, they are the children of a great king.

Charles and Mary and James lived three hundred years ago. Their grandfather had been King of England, and then their father was king. Next Charles ruled his country, and finally James.

Their grandfather was one of the kings who tried to force all of the people to go to one church and to give their money to no other. He forbade them to have a church of their own, and treated pretty roughly those who would not obey him.

In one part of England there were a number of people who did not like the church of the king’s choice, and were set on having one that suited their way of thinking. They had heard of another country, just a little way across a small sea, where people might go to any church that they liked. So they left their good farms and fled from England to this other country, called Holland, the home of the Dutch[1].

Here