ready to listen,
Always ready to hear whatever pertains to Miles Standish.” 
Thereupon answered the Captain, embarrassed, and culling his phrases: 
“’T is not good for a man to be alone, say the Scriptures. 
This I have said before, and again and again I repeat it;
Every hour in the day, I think it, and feel it, and say it. 
Since Rose Standish died, my life has been weary and dreary;
Sick at heart have I been, beyond the healing of friendship. 
Oft in my lonely hours have I thought of the maiden Priscilla. 
She is alone in the world; her father and mother and brother
Died in the winter together; I saw her going and coming,
Now to the grave of the dead, and now to the bed of the dying,
Patient, courageous, and strong, and said to myself, that if ever
There were angels on earth, as there are angels in heaven,
Two have I seen and known; and the angel whose name is Priscilla
Holds in my desolate life the place which the other abandoned. 
Long have I cherished the thought, but never have dared to reveal it,
Being a coward in this, though valiant enough for the most part. 
Go to the damsel Priscilla, the loveliest maiden of Plymouth,
Say that a blunt old Captain, a man not of words but of actions,
Offers his hand and his heart, the hand and heart of a soldier. 
Not in these words, you know, but this in short is my meaning;
I am a maker of war, and not a maker of phrases. 
You, who are bred as a scholar, can say it in elegant language,
Such as you read in your books of the pleadings and wooings of lovers,
Such as you think best adapted to win the heart of a maiden.”

When he had spoken, John Alden, the fair-haired, taciturn stripling,
All aghast at his words, surprised, embarrassed, bewildered,
Trying to mask his dismay by treating the subject with lightness,
Trying to smile, and yet feeling his heart stand still in his bosom,
Just as a timepiece stops in a house that is stricken by lightning,
Thus made answer and spake, or rather stammered than answered: 
“Such a message as that, I am sure I should mangle and mar it;
If you would have it well done,—­I am only repeating your maxim,—­
You must do it yourself, you must not leave it to others!”
But with the air of a man whom nothing can turn from his purpose,
Gravely shaking his head, made answer the Captain of Plymouth: 
“Truly the maxim is good, and I do not mean to gainsay it;
But we must use it discreetly, and not waste powder for nothing. 
Now, as I said before, I was never a maker of phrases. 
I can march up to a fortress and summon the place to surrender,
But march up to a woman with such a proposal, I dare not. 
I’m not afraid of bullets, nor shot from the mouth of a cannon,
But of a thundering “No!” point-blank from the mouth of a woman,
That I confess I’m afraid of, nor am I ashamed to confess it! 
So you must grant my request, for you are an elegant