OLD HOMESTEAD 



Boiling and sugaring-off were both done out of doors, in big 

 kettles hung on poles over the fire. The wood was cut as 

 wanted and used green. The result was black and inferior sugar. 

 An old pioneer would not think the maple sugar of to-day, made 

 by the use of improved methods and implements, was genuine. 

 To him it would lack both flavor and color. Our people 

 sugared-off in the woods for a few years only after I was old 

 enough to go to the woods. 



Two little episodes personal to myself are called to my 

 memory by this sugar-bush talk. 



When a very small boy I was one day alone with my father 

 in the sugar-bush. Sap v/as running fast and he was gathering 

 it late. I was left at the shanty to tend fire. He had gone 

 over the bush that day, all except the hemlock-hill route, and 

 started out for that long after sundown and after the evening 

 shadows had begun to fall deep and black, telling me to keep a 

 good fire, that he would not be gone long, and then we would 

 go home. I watched him disappear down towards the little 

 brook with no particular anxiety and turned to the shanty. I 

 stood around in front of the fire awhile, and then sat down on 

 the edge of the bunk. Then I got up and walked out to the 

 woodpile and back. Perhaps fifteen minutes elapsed while I 

 thus nervously occupied myself. The shadows began to deepen 

 and the light of the fire shone brighter and brighter upon the 

 solemn, big maples in front of the sugar-house. The trees 

 began to look vague, doubtful and suspicious. I could not see 

 and did not know what was behind me. I began to think that 

 father had been gone too long, and I went down towards the 

 slippery-elm tree and called, as I thought, quite loudly, but got 

 no answer. Hemlock hill was dark and black. I hastened 

 back to the shanty, but did not care to go in. The solid black 



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