ie. GREAT HORNED. OWL 
Li AORK had been going on all day in the 
sugar bush; the sap had been gathered 
and drawn to the boiling place, until 
there remained to be visited only a few scattering 
trees near the swamp. As it falls to the lot of the 
boy on the farm to run errands and do odd jobs, so 
the collecting of the sap from these few trees naturally 
fell to him, and before he was out of hearing a voice 
from the sugar camp called to him, “Don’t be gone 
long, for it will soon be chore time.” 
The shadows were growing long as the old horse 
moved the sled slowly along the snowy road winding 
in and out among the tall maples, and gloom was 
settling in the thick hemlocks at the base of Hall’s 
Hill. The boy was softly whistling to himself and 
thinking as only boys can think, when a rabbit with 
easy graceful bounds crossed the road but a few paces 
ahead of him, stopping by the side of a birch bush 
to nibble the tender buds. Just then a sound came 
up from the swamp which startled the boy, not 
289 
