PREFACE 



the sugar maple grows It was paramount in the 

 woods of the old home farm where I grew up. It 

 looks and smells like home. When I bring in a ma- 

 ple stick to put on my fire, I feel like caressing it a 

 little. Its fiber is as white as a lily, and nearly as 

 sweet-scented. It is such a tractable, satisfactory 

 wood to handle a clean, docile, wholesome tree; 

 burning without snapping or sputtering, easily 

 worked up into stovewood, fine of grain, hard of 

 texture, stately as a forest tree, comely and clean as 

 a shade tree, glorious in autumn, a fountain of cool- 

 ness in summer, sugar in its veins, gold in its foliage, 

 warmth in its fibers, and health in it the year 

 round." 



CLARA BARRUS 

 The Nest at Riverby 

 West Park on the Hudson 

 New York 



