FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 



323 



In the early evening, when school was out and the chores all done, the boys and 

 girls would come trooping in from some neighboring farm or village to visit with the 

 sugar makers and have a merry time. Sitting by the fire they told stories and sang 

 their old time songs. There were wrestling matches, and snowballing with the girls, 

 while in some retired spots love making was carried on, and the old, old story was 

 told again. When, with the increasing cold, the sap would no longer run, the buckets 

 were emptied, and everything was made ready to sugar off. The hospitalities of the 

 occasion were observed, and all were invited to eat as much as they pleased. Then, 

 the fires died down, and the tired workmen, accompanied by their visitors, disappeared 

 along the forest paths. The song and laugh and sound of merry voices grew fainter 

 in the distance; the forest was dark and silent again. But long after they were gone 

 the smouldering embers, stirred by the night wind, would at times dispel the shadows 

 with some fitful glow, like gleams of memory lighting up the past. 



THE FIRST RUN OF SAP, 



