The heir-apparent to the Maypole pressed his finger on his lips, and glancing at the young gentleman already noticed, who had changed his attitude when the house was first mentioned, replied in a lower tone:
'That,' returned the landlord, a little brought down from his dignity by the stranger's surliness, 'is a Maypole story, and has been any time these four-and-twenty years.
"Votaries of the Maypole," cried the flower-decked priest, "merrily, all day long, have the woods echoed to your mirth.
The wreath of roses, that hung from the lowest green bough of the Maypole, had been twined for them, and would be thrown over both their heads, in symbol of their flowery union.
"Begin you the stave, reverend Sir," cried they all; "and never did the woods ring to such a merry peal as we of the Maypole shall send up!"
Immediately a prelude of pipe, cithern, and viol, touched with practised minstrelsy, began to play from a neighboring thicket, in such a mirthful cadence that the boughs of the Maypole quivered to the sound.
Just then, as if a spell had loosened them, down came a little shower of withering rose leaves from the Maypole. Alas, for the young lovers!
But what chiefly characterized the colonists of Merry Mount was their veneration for the Maypole. It has made their true history a poet's tale.
Unfortunately, there were men in the new world of a sterner faith than those Maypole worshippers.
There were the silken colonists, sporting round their Maypole; perhaps teaching a bear to dance, or striving to communicate their mirth to the grave Indian; or masquerading in the skins of deer and wolves, which they had hunted for that especial purpose.
As we glance again at the Maypole, a solitary sunbeam is fading from the summit, and leaves only a faint, golden tinge blended with the hues of the rainbow banner.
The Puritans had played a characteristic part in the Maypole mummeries.
And with his keen sword Endicott assaulted the hallowed Maypole. Nor long did it resist his arm.
"There," cried Endicott, looking triumphantly on his work, "there lies the only Maypole in New England!
But the votaries of the Maypole gave one groan for their idol.
