Were the means at hand , I would resist to the death ; being powerless , I entreat . Do with me as thou wilt , but let Edith go untouched . '' `` Not so , '' replied the immitigable zealot . `` We are not wont to show an idle courtesy to that sex which requireth the stricter discipline . -- What sayest thou , maid ? Shall thy silken bridegroom suffer thy share of the penalty besides his own ? '' `` Be it death , '' said Edith , `` and lay it all on me . '' Truly , as Endicott had said , the poor lovers stood in a woeful case . Their foes were triumphant , their friends captive and abased , their home desolate , the benighted wilderness around them , and a rigorous destiny in the shape of the Puritan leader their only guide . Yet the deepening twilight could not altogether conceal that the iron man was softened . He smiled at the fair spectacle of early love ; he almost sighed for the inevitable blight of early hopes . `` The troubles of life have come hastily on this young couple , '' observed Endicott . `` We will see how they comport themselves under their present trials ere we burden them with greater . If among the spoil there be any garments of a more decent fashion , let them be put upon this May-lord and his Lady instead of their glistening vanities . Look to it , some of you . '' `` And shall not the youth 's hair be cut ? '' asked Peter Palfrey , looking with abhorrence at the lovelock and long glossy curls of the young man . `` Crop it forthwith , and that in the true pumpkin-shell fashion , '' answered the captain . `` Then bring them along with us , but more gently than their fellows . There be qualities in the youth which may make him valiant to fight and sober to toil and pious to pray , and in the maiden that may fit her to become a mother in our Israel , bringing up babes in better nurture than her own hath been .
-- Nor think ye , young ones , that they are the happiest , even in our lifetime XXXXX a moment , who misspend it in dancing round a Maypole . ''
around at besides for in of on that to with