DAYS IN THE OPEN 



" Did you ever work in a sugar-bush ? No ? 

 Poor fellow! You've missed something worth 

 while out of your life. I understand that nowa- 

 days they evaporate the sap in shallow pans; we 

 used to boil it in a big iron kettle. We did not have 

 many maples on our place, so I sometimes worked 

 for Deacon Bouton, who had the next farm west of 

 ours. He had a big sugar-bush, and we carried the 

 pails of sap on neck-yokes. When we had a big 

 run of sap we had to boil all night as well as during 

 the day. I'll never forget one night when we had 

 a feast. There were two boys besides myself : Ed 

 Bouton, the deacon's son, and John Hammond. Ed 

 had brought forty-five hen's eggs and John added 

 five goose eggs. We boiled the eggs in the sap, and 

 the three of us ate those forty-five hen's eggs and 

 started on the goose eggs. For some reason we did 

 not relish them. Possibly the hen's eggs had taken 

 the keen edge from our appetites. 



" But how I'm running on ! Regret being born in 

 the country? Do you know that I can shut my 

 eyes and see the hills and meadows and orchard, 

 fairer than any ever put in colours on the canvas? 

 I can see the oriole's nest swinging from a branch 

 of the big elm in the corner of our yard and the 

 nest of the pewee under the bridge. Just across 

 the road in the meadow are glorious masses of 

 violets, and mother's peonies and sweet pinks beat 

 anything I've ever seen since. When I'm dog- 

 tired from the day's work it rests me just to think 



