SUGARING FOR MOTHS 



The day has been hot and sultry. The sun has set behind 

 great banks of clouds which are piling up on the northwestern 

 horizon. Now that the light is beginning to fade, the great 

 masses of cumulus, which are slowly gathering and rising higher 

 toward the zenith, are lit up by pale flashes of sheet-lightning. 

 As yet the storm is too far off to permit us to hear the boom of 

 the thunder, but about ten or eleven o'clock to-night we shall 

 probably experience all the splendor of a dashing thunder- 

 shower. 



Along the fringe of woodland which skirts the back pastures 

 is a path which we long have known. Here stand long ranks 

 of 'ancient beeches; sugar maples, which in fall are glorious in 

 robes of yellow and scarlet; ash trees, the tall gray trunks of 

 which carry skyward huge masses of light pinnated foliage; 

 walnuts and butternuts, oaks, and tulip-poplars. On either side 

 of the path in luxuriant profusion are saplings, sprung from the 

 monarchs of the forest, young elm trees planted by the winds, 

 broad-leaved papaws, round-topped hawthorns, viburnums, 

 spreading dogwoods, and here and there in moist places clumps 

 of willows. Where the path runs down by the creek, sycamores 

 spread their gaunt white branches toward the sky, and drink 

 moisture from the shallow reaches of the stream, in which duck- 

 weed, arrow-weed, and sweet pond-lilies bloom. 



The woodland is the haunt of many a joyous thing, which 

 frequents the glades and hovers over the flowers. To-night the 

 lightning in the air, the suggestion of a coming storm which 

 lurks in the atmosphere, will send a thrill through all the swarms, 

 which have been hidden through the day on moss-grown trunks, 

 or among the leaves, and they will rise, as the dusk gathers, in 

 troops about the pathway. It is just the night upon which to 

 take a collecting trip, resorting to the well-known method of 

 "sugaring." 



Here we have a bucket and a clean whitewash brush. We 



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