I found that this sugar-making was quite a tedious operation, as the sap had to be boiled twice, and a great deal of care and time was spent upon it before it cooled down into the hard, light-brown maple sugar of which most boys and girls are so fond.
But I saw enough to make me understand the principles of the business.
I found that when the sap began to rise in the trees, in the early spring, there was always enough of it to supply the needs of the tree, and a good deal besides to supply the needs of the sugar-makers.
I watched all the processes, and tasted the sap when it first flowed from the tree and in all its different stages. And when I went back to the farm-house, early in the afternoon, I thought that it would be a great thing to have a grove of sugar-maples, and to be able to make one’s own sugar, and to be independent, in that respect at least, of the grocery-store.
I had not yet taken a meal at the farm-house, for I had arrived that day after breakfast, and had gone out to the camp soon afterward.
When supper-time came—and long before in fact—I was very hungry, having had but a lunch in the woods. And so I ate bravely of the good things that were so bountifully spread upon the table. But when I came to drink my tea, which was sweetened with maple-sugar, I did not like it. And the more I drank the less I cared to own a sugar-maple grove, and brighter and brighter became the visions of the grocery store, with its savory smells, and its great bins of sugar from the sugar-canes of Louisiana and Cuba.
When supper was over I had not finished my cup of tea, but I had changed my mind completely about the desirableness of owning a sugar-maple grove, and making one’s own sugar.
SILVER-PLATING.
The precious metals are gold, silver, and platinum. They are so called because they are rare and costly. Platinum is the most rare, and is used only to a very moderate extent. Gold is more plentiful; and silver much more abundant, though sufficiently rare to be considered a precious metal.
