“Well, maple sirup and maple sugar are about as sweet as honey. These spouts will help us get all we want of both.”
“Will they?” cried Shaggy eagerly. “How?”
“The maple trees, too,” Father Thrift told him, “have been sleeping all winter. Most of the sap has been down in their roots. In the early spring it travels upward into the trunk and branches and the trees awake.
“The maple tree does not need all its sap. It is willing to give some of it to us. And when you have maple sirup you won’t have to steal honey from the bees.”
This pleased Shaggy so much that he stood up on his hind legs and danced a bear dance. How Father Thrift laughed!
THE SWEETEST THING IN THE FOREST
Father Thrift spent the next few days in making wooden pails, in which to gather the maple sap.