EPISODES 507 



bands, attending to the kettles. Their plain dresses of 

 Kentucky homespun were far more pleasing to my sight 

 than the ribboned turbans of city dames, or the powdered 

 wigs and embroidered waistcoats of antique beaux. I was 

 heartily welcomed, and supplied with a goodly pone of 

 bread, a plate of molasses, and some sweet potatoes. 



Fatigued with my long ramble, I lay down under the 

 lee of the smoke, and soon fell into a sound sleep. When 

 day returned, the frost lay thick around; but the party 

 arose cheerful and invigorated, and after performing 

 their orisons, resumed their labor. The scenery was 

 most pleasing; the ground all round looked as if it had 

 been cleared of underwood ; the maples, straight and tall, 

 seemed as if planted in rows; between them meandered 

 several rills, which gently murmured as they hastened 

 toward the larger stream; and as the sun dissolved the 

 frozen dews the few feathered songsters joined the chorus 

 of the woodsmen's daughters. Whenever a burst of 

 laughter suddenly echoed through the woods, an Owl or 

 Wild Turkey would respond to it, with a signal welcome 

 to the young men of the party. With large ladles the 

 sugar-makers stirred the thickening juice of the maple; 

 pails of sap were collected from the trees and brought in 

 by the young people, while here and there some sturdy 

 fellow was seen first hacking a cut in a tree, and after- 

 wards boring with an auger a hole, into which he intro- 

 duced a piece of hollow cane, by which the sap was to be 

 drained off. About half a dozen men had felled a noble 

 yellow poplar, and sawed its gregt trunk into many pieces, 

 which, after being split, they were scooping into troughs 

 to be placed under the cane-cocks, to receive the maple 

 juice. 



Now, good reader, should you ever chance to travel 

 through the maple grounds that lie near the banks of that 

 lovely stream the Green River of Kentucky, either in 

 January or in March, or through those on the broader 



