LIV.—A Visitor 



YESTERDAY morning a distinguished visi- 

 tor spent a few minutes with me in the 

 sugar bush. To be exact, I was aware of 

 his presence for a few minutes. He may 

 have been with me for quite a while, though I didn't 

 notice him. When I got to the wood-lot I had only 

 one idea, and that was to save sap. It had been 

 running all night. Some buckets were overflowing 

 and others brimming dangerously, and I had to 

 hustle around with a pail before giving attention 

 to anything else. When I put a stop to the waste 

 1 lit the fire under the pan and got the work of 

 boiling in properly started. Then I had leisure to 

 notice that the crows were making a racket. Glanc- 

 ing towards the centre of the disturbance, I was sur- 

 prised to see a huge bird sitting in the top of the 

 biggest maple, about fifteen rods from where I was 

 working. My first thought was that it was a great 

 horned owl, but it was altogether too large. Al- 

 though the crows were noisy they did not approach 



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