THE SUGARING OFF.
Will Carleton in Everywhere.
You’d hardly ever think it sir,
That this big city now astir
With every rattling noisy thing
With twentieth century thought to bring,
With roofs a-shuttin’ out the sky,
An’ trolley-wagons skippin’ by,
An’ wires a’ dodgin’ here and there,
For folks to whisper through the air.
An’ factories at the daylight’s gleam
A-blowin’ loud their horns o’ steam,
You’d hardly ever think, I say,
A-reasonin’ round the usual way,
That here, instead o’ things like these,
Was once a grove of maple trees,
An’ under yon electric lamp
We used to run a sugar camp?
One star-lit night—it seems, you know,
About a year or two ago,
But when you come to count it square
It’s fifty of ’em, I declare—
We gathered on my father’s lands,
’Bout where that market wagon stands;
Us younger folks each other found
From wooded regions all around,
An’ then with genuine laugh and smile,
We sugared off in county style!
Since then, these memory hallowed spots
Are fenced up into city lots;
The farm is raisin’ spires and domes,
Where once the maples had their homes;
Big feats are given, rich and rare,
Of which, I own, I have had my share,
But nothin’ ever tasted quite
So good, as on that star-lit night!
An’ when the sap was boilin’ there
Till we could taste it in the air,
We wood-land boys with hearts awhirl,
Each took a cupful to his girl,
An’ cuddled down with her an’ ate,
With just the white snow for a plate.
You see that first-class candy-shop
Up yonder where them school girls stop?
They’ve gathered sweet-meats there that’s worth
As much as any now on earth;
But they’ve got nothin’ that’s in sight
Of what we ate that winter’s night.
An’ up on Woodland Avenue,
A young, old lady, kind an’ true,
With han’some tresses gray enough,
But still on earth, an’ “up to snuff,”
Will tell you, when we go that way,
(If she hasn’t changed her mind today)
That, though the years have brought her nigh
All earthly good that cash can buy,
She’d give them all for that one night,
When, from the sap fire’s fadin’ light,
We wandered homeward side by side,
An’ kindled flames that never died,
An’ felt confession’s sudden charm,
An’ slowly walkin’ arm-in-arm,
With no one there to laugh or scoff,
Just had a private sugarin’-off.
MAPLE GROVE IN SOUTHEASTERN VERMONT. ASCUTNEY MOUNTAIN IN THE DISTANCE.