Sam

I was shivering when I got to the ground. I had just gotten off the Mayflower. It was a long hard journey. My family had died of scarvey on the way here. I was sea sick, and I never wanted to get on another boat again. Half of us had died on the journey here so there weren`t many Pilgrims left. It would take a long time to make the houses, and by then I thought most of us would die too. It was just our luck we had arrived on a harsh winter, and didn`t even have any houses. This was the worst part of our long journey. I had enough things to make it through though. there was only one thing I was glad about, and it was the reason I came here. I could do the religion that I believed in. And thinking of that I said a silent prayer to myself. After that I got to work cutting down trees, chopping them up, and helped build all the houses that we needed. I started to chop down tree after tree untill we had enough wood to make all the houses. My hands were hurting from holding the axe. I wished I had a nice warm fire to warm my hands, but I still had to wait a while to get my house. I got out my hammer and some nails and got to work. It was hard to make just a little bit of the house. This was going to take a while. It took hours and hours and everybody kept on working. It was blistering cold. "I'm going to be glad when this is over,I whispered to myself as I put a nail into my house that I was building. For the thousandth time I thought about coming here wasn`t worth it. Then finally I finished my house. I got my rifle and started to look around the village for some where to hunt. Then I saw something out of the corner of my eye a deer. I took aim, then I shot. It missed. Well better luck next time I thought. I started to walk home, but then I saw another chance. Again I took aim, but more carefully this time. I was trying to be so quiet I stopped breathing. I shot, and that time I was sure it was killIed. It ran a little bit, but then fell to the ground. I went, picked it up and started back to the village. It was heavy so I knew it had a lot of meat on its bones. I got back to the village and gave it to some women so they could cook it for their evening meal. Then I went to my house to make a bed. [on the way back I had realised I still had to do that] Then I hurried off. I got finished with it right when it was time for the meal. It wouldn`t be that big because we had just got here I thought. Then when I got there I was right. There was only some types of meat and some stale food from the journey. I sat down and said a silent prayer and got some of the deer that I had shot and dug in. It tasted awesome. I had some other foods and they were delicious too. After the meal I went back to my house and layed on my bed. It was getting dark. I decided to go to sleep. The next day I went out to hunt so that we had something to eat. I got my rifle and more then one shot. I decided that I would take more ammo when I went hunting after my last expirience. I went in to the forest and walked around to find something. Luckily, it was earlier then I thought so because I had a lot of time to find something to shoot. I was the first one up and hunting, but also the bad thing about it was that it was even colder I thought as I walked around. Then I heard a faint crack. Then I turned around and saw a tiny tail coming out of a bush. It looked like a deer tail, but it was to little. Then I figured that it was just a baby deer. I went over to see if it was injured. It wasnt, but it was stuck. Its hoof was caught under a root. "I wonder how you did that" I asked myself as I reached to grab its hoof to pull it out. It saw the action and tried to move, but it just tripped. I grabbed it and I lifted the root as much as I could and slid it out then It ran off. Then I continued my hunt. I finally saw a deer took aim. I was very careful not to make a sound. I shot. It was a clear hit. I ran over and picked it up. I started to carry it back. When I got back I was just in time for the morning meal, but there wasn`t enough time to cook it.I ate my breakfast quickly. It was good. I started to go back to my house. I was exosted after the long morning. After a few weeks I came back hunting. I had shot a duck. I went over to the women to give it to them to cook and saw them talking to a strange looking man. He was showing them how to do something but I didn`t know what. It looked like he was throwing tiny pebbles on the ground. Then I heard what they were. They were planting seeds. Whatever that was. I went over and gave the duck to them and started back off to my house. There really wasn`t anything to do. It was past the winter season and now we had found out that there was a pond nereby our village. I started to get suspicious about that weird man. I turned around to see what they were doing now, but they were still doing the same thing. For the next few days I saw the same person. Then one day he finally left and we had a lot of some kind of plant. The women picked them and usally put them on our plates for the meals. They were pretty good. It was the same thing for weeks and weeks and one day things changed. I was laying in the grass listening to the sounds of nature and I heard a bunch of stomping. And then out of the woods came some of the weird people. They kept on coming and coming. I guessed probaly about eighty or ninety of them when they finally stopped coming. All of them had food in their hands. I guessed they were staying a while. They went over to the women and started to help cooking. Well the women did but the men went in the woods with what looked to be sticks. About an hour later they came back with dear ducks and some other meats. They gave it to the women and then the women got right to work. I was wondering around trying to find my friend Will to ask him if he knew what was happening, but he found me first. "Do you know whats happening?" He asked with a confused face. "I was going to ask you if you knew what was happening, but apparently you don`t" I replied. "Well bye then" he said as he walked off. It was almost time for the meal and the strange people were still here. Soon it was time for the midday meal and the people were still here and were at the table. Then finally Will came and said, "I finally found out whats happening." "Then what`s going on?" I asked in an uncertain tone. "We`re going to have a feast with the Wampanoag." He replied "The Wampanoag?"I asked. "I had a talk with one of them and he said that they were called the Wampanoag."He told me. "Okay thanks." I sat down and said a prayer before I ate. After that There were a bunch of fun games to do. I mostly did the target competitions. I didn`t win much times but I did win a couple times. After that a lot of people had to go out hunting for the evening meal. I didn`t have to go but I wanted to so I went with them. There was a lot of stuff to shoot now that it wasn`t winter. I came back with a duck in almost thirty minutes. I gave it to the women and started to do the games again. Before I knew it it was time for the evening meal. I ate it and went in my house for the night. It was the next day and the sun was barely up and I was already hunting for food for the festival. It was going to last about three days and the Wampanoags were going to stay the whole time so I had to go hunting a lot. I had already shot one duck and I was looking for some more game. And then I saw it. It was small, but it would do. I aimed very carefully and shot It missed. It wasn`t that bad though because I had already shot something this morning. I couldn`t get anything else though because it was almost time for a meal. I started back toward the village. We had cornbread, pudding, waterfowl, mussels and more. It was the same routine for the next three days. After the three days were done the Wampanoags left, and that is the story of the first thanksgiving.

The End