He that is faithfuj in that which is least, is faithful also in much.— Luke 16: 1». 



MYSEIiF AND OTY NEIGHBORS. 



WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR'— LUKE 10: 29. 



All the trees of the field shall clap their hands.— 

 ISA. 55 : 12. 



J\ LITTLE way from the " Home of the 

 >V^ Honey - Bees " lives a neighbor, of 

 — ^ whom I liave spoken several times. 

 He tised to keep bees somewhat, but he has 

 iinally given it up. 1 sometimes laugh at 

 him for having dropped them, for he always 

 made them quite prolitable. Well, this 

 friend, some like myself, is given to hobbies ; 

 or, perhaps, a better way to express it would 

 be to say that he takes hold of one subject 

 at a time, and studies it and pursues it most 

 vehemently. When he lirst commenced to 

 study bees he wanted to see a straw l)ee- 

 hive ; and as no one around here had seen 

 one. he determined to go to the Centennial 

 at Philadelphia, mainly to see a straw bee- 

 hive. Of late years he has been studying 

 maple-trees and maple sugar. In fact, it 

 was friend Clark who furnished the little 

 maple-sugar cakes I have been selling you, 

 and this year he had got so much taken up 

 with the business that he rented another 

 large sugar-bush besides his own, making in 

 all about 700 maple sugar-trees, and then he 

 bought one of the latest improved maple- 

 sugar evaporators, and one day in JNIarch he 

 told me that I Lad better come over and see 

 his sugar-camp. I went over myself, and 

 was so well pleased with the surroundings 

 that I told the hands about it at the noon 



service, and finally we all went over, nearly 

 a hundred of us. As we came into the 

 woods the girls scattered here and there, 

 looking for the lirst little spring llowrets 

 peeping through the dead leaves. But I was 

 most taken up by the tinkling of the drops 

 of maple sap as they struck on the bottom 

 of the new tin pails hung up against the 

 trees scattered tlireugh the woods. 



The sap had just been gathered; and, in 

 fact, one of the "secrets of neighbor Clark's 

 success is in gathering and evaporating the 

 sap just about as fast as it nms from the 

 trees. A large tin can is set on a sled, and 

 this is drawn around through certain paths 

 in the woods, and the sap is poured from the 

 pails into this, when it is drawn up to the 

 boiling-camp. By means of a stout windlass 

 and proper chains, the large tank is lifted 

 from the sled, and poured into huge tin vats 

 up under the roof of the boiling-house. 

 From these tin vats the sap runs into the 

 boilers. To itrevent its running too fast, 

 however, a hollow tin can, or float, is placed 

 on the surface of the heating-boiler, and the 

 rising and lowering of tiiis regulates the 

 How of sap. After it is lieated and skimmed, 

 another automatic faucet runs it into one of 

 the long boilers, and it goes through this in 

 a zigzag course (not unlike the diagram 

 shown on page 2G7), so arranged that, while 

 sweet sap is running in at the one end, 

 maple syrup is ready to rtin oi;t at the other 

 end ; and as it is all boiled in clean bright 

 tins, being at once strained through cloth 



