In the early spring, when the snow melts, thousands of men in the Northern and Western States are busy making maple-sugar. If you have seen only the dirty-looking brown cakes of maple-sugar sold in many places, you know very little about it. I have seen it as white as snow, although it is generally brown. Then there is the nice sirup; and did you ever eat any maple-candy? Well, I will tell you a story.
Willy and his sisters lived in Vermont, where a great deal of maple-sugar is made. One spring, when their Cousin Leonard came to see them, they thought it would be fine fun to go to the maple woods, where the men had been making sugar, and try to make some candy. It was a bright day, not very cold, although some snow was still left upon the ground.
"Mother," said Willy, "may we go to the woods to-day, and make some maple-candy?"—"Yes," said his mother, "only be careful not to wet your feet."—"Oh! what a nice time we will have!" said the two girls; and they all clapped their hands for joy.
In a few minutes their mother had put them up a nice luncheon. Then they took a small kettle, two or three tin cups, three spoons, and a hatchet. These things they packed upon a hand-sled; and, when all was ready, they set out at a brisk pace through the fields, over the snow, the boys drawing the sled, and the girls following close behind.
There was a good path, and they soon came to the woods. On the edge of the woods was a hut, where the men rested sometimes while making sugar. The children thought they would play that was their house. Nobody was there that day: so they had it all to themselves.
A little way out of the woods were two large stakes with a pole across them, on which hung a large kettle. Some half-burnt logs and ashes were under the kettle, but the fire was all out. A pile of wood was not far off; and branches of trees, chips, and logs were scattered around.
The children gathered dry leaves and sticks, and made a fire in a safe place. The next thing to do was to get some sap to boil into candy. What is sap? It is the juice of a tree. When the warm spring sunshine melts the snow, the roots of the tree drink in the moisture of the earth. This goes up into the tree, and makes sap. The sap within the tree, and the sunshine without, make the buds swell, and the bright fresh leaves come out.
For making sugar the sap of the maple-tree is used. But how is the sap got from the trees? and how is it made into sugar? I will tell you. A hole is bored in each tree, a spout put in the hole, and a bucket is placed underneath. This is called "tapping the tree." The sap runs from the tree into the bucket, drop by drop, until it is full. Then the sap is boiled till it becomes sirup; and the sirup is boiled into sugar.
The children found that the sap was dropping from the spouts in the trees around them. Some of the buckets were nearly full. They soon gathered enough into their little tin cups to fill their kettle; and then they put it on the fire to boil.