A TASTE OF MAINE BIRCH. 43 



and sweeten it a little, and I think birch bark will do 

 it. In camp Uncle Nathan often drank liis tea and 

 coffee from a bark cup ; the china closet in the birch- 

 tree was always handy, and our vulgar tin ware was gen- 

 erally a good deal mixed, and the kitchen-maid not at 



jail particular about dish-washing. We all tried the 

 oatmeal with the maple syrup in one of these dishes^ 

 and the stewed mountain cranberries, using a birch- 

 bark spoon, and never found service better- Uncle 

 Nathan declared he could boil potatoes in a bark ket- 

 tle, and I did not doubt him. Instead of sending our 

 soiled napkins and table-spreads to the wash, we rolled 

 them up into candles and torches, and drew daily upon 

 our stores in the forest for new ones. 



But the great triumph of the birch is of course the 

 bark canoe. When Uncle Nathan took us out under 

 his little wood-shed, and showed us, or rather modestly 

 permitted us to see, his nearly finished canoe, it was 

 like a first glimpse of some new and unknown genius 

 of the woods or streams. It sat there on the chips 

 and shavings and fragments of bark like some shy, 

 delicate creature just emerged from its hiding-place, 

 or like some wild flower just opened. It was the first 

 boat of the kind I had ever seen, and it filled my eye 



(Completely. What woodcraft it indicated, and what 



; a wild free life, sylvan life, it promised ! It had such 

 a fresh, aboriginal look as I had never before seen in 

 any kind of handiwork. Its clear yellow-red color 



^ would have become the cheek of an Indian maideno 

 Then its supple curves and swells, its sinewy stays 

 and thwarts, its bow-like contour, its tomahawk stem 

 and stern rising quickly and sharply from its frame, 

 were all vividly suggestive of the race from which it 

 came. An old Indian had taught Uncle Nathan tha 



