MAKING MAPLE SUGAR.—PART II.
In the great kettles the boiling of the sap goes on slowly, and the liquid, as it thickens, is dipped from one to another, until in the end kettle it is reduced to syrup, and is taken out to cool and settle, until enough is made to "sugar off."
To "sugar off" is to boil the syrup until it is thick enough to crystallize into sugar. This is the grand event, and is only done once in two or three days.
But the boy's desire is to "sugar off" all the time. He boils his kettle down as rapidly as possible; he is not particular about chips, scum, or ashes.
He is apt to burn his sugar; but if he can get enough to make a little wax on the snow, or to scrape from the bottom of the kettle with his wooden paddle, he is happy.
A great deal is wasted on his hands, and the outside of his face, and on his clothes, but he does not care; he is not stingy.
To watch the operations of the big fire gives him constant pleasure. Sometimes he is left to watch the boiling kettles, with a piece of pork tied on the end of a stick, which he dips into the boiling mass when it threatens to go over.
He is constantly tasting of it, however, to see if it is not almost syrup. He has a long, round stick, whittled smooth at one end, which he uses for this purpose, at the constant risk of burning his tongue.
The smoke blows in his face; he is grimy with ashes; he is altogether such a mass of dirt, stickiness, and sweetness, that his own mother wouldn't know him.
He likes to boil eggs with the hired man in the hot sap; he likes to roast potatoes in the ashes, and he would live in the camp day and night if he were permitted.
To sleep there with the men, and awake in the night and hear the wind in the trees, and see the sparks fly up to the sky, is a perfect realization of all the stories of adventures he has ever read.
He tells the other boys afterward that he heard something in the night that sounded very much like a bear. The hired man says that he was very much scared by the hooting of an owl.
The great occasions for the boy, though, are the times of "sugaring off." Sometimes this used to be done in the evening, and it was made the excuse for a frolic in the camp.
The neighbors were invited; sometimes even the pretty girls from the village, who filled all the woods with their sweet voices and merry laughter, were there, too.
The tree branches all show distinctly in the light of the fire, which lights up the bough shanty, the hogsheads, the buckets on the trees, and the group about the boiling kettles, until the scene is like something taken out of a fairy play.
At these sugar parties every one was expected to eat as much sugar as possible; and those who are practiced in it can eat a great deal.
It is a peculiar fact about eating warm maple sugar, that though you may eat so much of it one day as to be sick, you will want it the next day more than ever.
At the "sugaring off" they used to pour the hot sugar upon the snow, where it congealed into a sort of wax, which I suppose is the most delicious substance that was ever invented. And it takes a great while to eat it.
If you should close your teeth firmly on a lump of it, you would be unable to open your mouth until it dissolved. The sensation while it is melting is very pleasant, but it will not do to try to talk, for you can not.
The boy used to make a big lump of it and give it to the dog, who seized it with great avidity, and closed his jaws on it, as dogs will on any thing.
It was funny the next moment to see the expression of perfect surprise on the dog's face when he found that he could not open his jaws.
He shook his head; he sat down in despair; he ran round in a circle; he dashed into the woods and back again.
He did every thing except climb a tree, and howl. It would have been such a relief to him if he could have howled. But that was the one thing he could not do.
Language Lesson.—Let pupils change the verbs in the following lines, so that they will indicate present time.
"He shook his head; he sat down in despair; he ran around in a circle; he dashed into the woods and back again."
Suggestion.—Let the teacher, from time to time, select stories, and have them read before the class. After the reading, let pupils make oral analyses. The stories should be short, and the exercise conducted without the use of pencils or paper.
LESSON LXXI.
en'sign, flag.
dis man'tled, stripped of masts, sails, and guns.
pa tri ot'ic, full of love for one's country.
hulk, a dismantled ship.
frig'ate, a ship of war.
tat'tered, torn.
me'te or, a fiery body in the heavens.
van'quished, conquered; overcome.
har'pies, destroyers.
manned, supplied with men.