"I know our Sam would git up that tree quick as a cat would lick her ear, I swanny."
"How, bub?"
"Arter plantin', dad allers gives Sam half a day to go troutin' and git elum rine (elm rind) to string our corn, and me and Abigail allers go too. Sam takes the axe and starts a strip of bark at the butt of a tree, till he can git his hands hold; then he gives it a twitch, and rips it up clear to the limbs; then he starts another one till he gits enough. Arter that he takes hold of one on 'em, and climbs up jist like nothin', and cuts 'em all off but one rope that he saves to come down on. They break off sometimes when there's a knot-hole; they won't run over a knot-hole. Abigail and me has jolly times swingin' on the ropes afore he cuts 'em off, and strippin' 'em into twine arter he takes the outside bark off, and windin' 'em into big balls."
The inner bark of the elm, cedar, bass, and willow is very strong and tough; when peeled from the outside layer and soaked in water it makes a very good substitute for twine. Our ancestors were taught the value of it by the Indians, and used it to string their corn and bind sheaves, and some old-fashioned people have not yet abandoned the practice. Getting elm rind and cutting withe rods were always popular with the boys, as it gave them part of a holiday.
"That's it," said Dan; "I see it all now. Here, bub."
He gave him three cents, upon which little Red-head put his bare feet to the ground and went off at a killing pace.
An axe was procured at Seth Harding's, and a strip of bark peeled from the butt of the tree to one of the lower limbs.
"Let us all go up," said Horace. "We will stay in the tree and take the nest from Frank. He's the lightest to go out on the limb."
Frank, taking hold of the piece of bark, put his legs around the tree, and pulled himself up, ascending in this way quite easily. Too impatient to wait, Dan and Horace followed suit, all three ascending at the same time.
In their haste and anxiety to run the bark as far up as possible, in order to reach one of the lower limbs easily, they ran it too far, within a few inches of the place where the branch joined the tree. The result of this was, that when they were pretty well up the trunk, Frank incautiously pressing the bark from the tree with his knees, it started the second time and ran out on the limb. Away swung the boys, far off from the trunk, in mid-air. The bark kept running narrower and narrower, as the limb grew smaller, till, its farther progress being suddenly arrested by a number of small limbs, it divided up and broke, while the boys came down into the water, amid the shouts and laughter of the rest, who were either swimming or putting on their clothes.