William Brewster, the colony's religious leader, is sitting in his family's house reading the Bible in a darkness lessened only by a tiny window and small candle. He is better dressed than others there; he was a postmaster and printer in Europe, and at age 60 is not as fit for field labor or lugging water pails into the stockade. He wears a pale yellow suit that buttons up beneath his short white beard. While Brewster smiles at the children crowding around his table, his demeanor is quiet and studious.

An adult asks him where his wife is.

"She died six months ago," he answers simply. Indeed, Mary Brewster died around April 1627.

Brewster is more vocal when asked what he thinks of the Bible translation King James authorized and published in 1611. Brewster complains that passages were rewritten to support the king's claims to be head of the church and rattles off strings of passages to prove his point. He also says the king similarly purged annotations from the older Geneva Bible, which was used by the Pilgrims and other Dissenters.

Brewster clearly knows Scripture both ways and could go on at length about this. But a question changes the subject -- "What's your favorite part of the Bible?" -- and the Pilgrim eases back and smiles. "First Corinthians," he says. "There are so many beautiful passages."

JOHN BORDSEN