DANVIS FARM LIFE 63 



which the sap is brought from the trees with 

 buckets and neck-yoke, and then taken to the 

 sugar-house. This is set, if possible, at the foot of 

 some hillside or knoll, on which the sled may be 

 driven so that its burden overtops the great hold- 

 ers standing beside the boiling-pans within. Into 

 these holders the sap is discharged through a pipe. 

 Now the boiling begins, and the thin sap thickens 

 to rich syrup as it seethes and bubbles in its slow 

 course from the first pan to the last, while the 

 woods about are filled with the sweet odor of its 

 steam. 



Following up this scent, and the sounds of merry 

 chatter, one may come upon a blithe "sugar 

 party" of young folks, gathered in and about the 

 sugar-house. In this earliest picnic of the season 

 the sole refreshment is hot sugar poured on clean 

 snow, where it cools to a gummy consistency- 

 known as "waxed" sugar. The duty of the rustic 

 gallant is to whittle a little maple paddle (which 

 is held to be the proper implement for sugar- 

 eating) for his mistress, and to keep her allotted 

 portion of the snowbank well supplied with the 

 amber-hued sweet. 



In earlier days the sap, caught in rough wooden 

 troughs, was boiled in a potash-kettle, suspended 

 by a log-chain from the smaller end of a goodly 

 sized tree trimmed of its branches and balanced 

 across a stump. A few rudely piled stones formed 



