108 A MAECH CHRONICLE. 



worthies sentry the woods on the northwest, and con- 

 front a steep side hill where sheep and cattle graze. 

 An equal number crowd up to the line on the east ; 

 and their gray, stately trunks are seen across meadows 

 or fields of grain. Then there is a pair of Siamese 

 twins, with heavy, bushy tops, while in the forks of 

 a wood-road stand* the two brothers, with their arms 

 around each other's neck, and their bodies in gentle 

 contact for a distance of thirty feet. 



One immense maple, known as the " old-cream- 

 pan-tree," stands, or did stand, quite alone among a 

 thick growth of birches and beeches. But it kept its 

 end up and did the work of two or three ordinary 

 trees, as its name denotes. Next to it the best milcher 

 in the lot was a shaggy-barked tree in the edge of the 

 field, that must have been badly crushed or broken 

 when it was little, for it had an ugly crook near the 

 ground, and seemed to struggle all the way up to get 

 in an upright attitude, but never quite succeeded ; 

 yet it could outrun all its neighbors nevertheless. 

 The poorest tree in the lot was a short-bodied, heavy- 

 topped tree, that stood in the edge of a spring-run. 

 It seldom produced half a gallon of sap during the 

 whole season ; but this half-gallon was very sweet, 

 three or four times as sweet as the ordinary article. 

 In the production of sap, top seems far less important 

 than body. It is not length of limb that wins in this 

 race, but length of trunk. A heavy, bushy-topped tree 

 in the open field, for instance, will not, according to 

 my observation, compare with a tall, long-trunked 



