"Well," said Fleda, biting her lips, "you will have to go down to Mr. Douglass's, nevertheless, Philetus, and tell him the doctor is coming to-morrow, but I should be very much obliged to him if he will be here next day. Will you?"
"Yes, marm!"
"Now, dear Hugh, will you make me those little spouts for the trees? of some dry wood : you can get plenty out here. You want to split them, up with a hollow chisel, about a quarter of an inch thick, and a little more than half an inch broad. Have you got a hollow chisel?"
"No, but I can get one up the hill. Why must it be hollow?"
"To make little spouts, you know, for the sap to run in. And then, my dear Hugh, they must be sharpened at one end so as to fit where the chisel goes in. I am afraid I have given you a day's work of it. How sorry I am you must go to-morrow to the mill! and yet I am glad too."
"Why need you go round yourself with these people?" said Hugh.
"I don't see the sense of it."
"They don't know where the trees are," said Fleda.
"I am sure I do not. Do you?"
"Perfectly well. And besides," said Fleda, laughing, "I should have great doubts of the discreetness of Philetus's auger if it were left to his simple direction. I have no notion the trees would yield their sap as kindly to him as to me. But I didn't bargain for Dr. Quackenboss."
Dr. Quackenboss arrived punctually the next morning with his oxen and sled; and, by the time it was loaded with the sap- troughs, Fleda, in her black cloak, yarn shawl, and grey little hood, came out of the house to the wood-yard. Earl Douglass was there, too, not with his team, but merely to see how matters stood, and give advice.