loves so well to mingle, whenever and wherever he can, with all his work. A dash of uncertainty a chance of failure - relieves the tedium of mere labor. An enterprise in the success of which luck is to have its share, is always undertaken with more zest, as the hunter would lose half the pleasure of the chase if he were sure of bagging the game.

But what can luck have to do with sugar-making? The trees cannot run away-the axe will cut the gouge will pierce - the troughs will hold fire will burn - sap will boil. True; but the sun is fitful and will not always shine just enough and not too much, nor the frost come always at night and stay away by day. It may be too warm to freeze, or too cold to thaw. It is this regular alternation that brings delight to the sugar-boiler; for it is only in the freezing process that the sap is accumulated, and in the thawing that it is given out. Nor is this all for which we look to luck. The sap is sometimes not so nectareous as it should be, and so yields less than its forty-eighth of the delicious sweet which the man of kettles claims as his due; and for an inferior yield luck gets always the blame.

But when he "lots" of a good season, he reaps a rich reward for his labor. The breaking up of winter, when the frozen earth and frozen trees begin to feel the sun's genial influence, is the propitious period. Winters of abundant snow are more particularly favorable, as more frequent changes of temperature usually attend its departure. In this case, the sugar-maker sets forth with lively hopes, and works indefatigably in preparing his troughs, in which labor his only aid is his faithful axe, with which he will scoop out two dozen a day. This done, he selects the fairest trees - hacks them after a peculiar fashion, (opinions conflict on this important point,) and then places a bark conductor, or something better if he can get it, so that no drop of the precious liquid may escape the rough-cut troughs arranged below. A huge "lug-pole," supported on crotches, receives the kettles; which in size and number are the best which can be found, and these are usually each slung by the aid of an ox-chain. With such primitive contrivances many thousands of pounds of maple sugar are made every year. No expensive apparatus, no attempt at refining - if we except a great tub of lime-water in which to rinse every trough and bucket frequently during the whole process of collecting the sapand this is cared for only by the careful a small minority.

But I am before my story a little. Sugar-making is undertaken, as before hinted, by every body indiscriminately, who can command a "bush," and this includes many whose disposable means could not compass the purchase of one great caldron, much less of half a dozen. This occasions a racing and chasing after kettles; - scouring the country in all directions to borrow or hire those indispensable articles. I have known them sought at a distance of twenty miles, with a promise of the payment of one half the value of the kettles, in sugar. With a favorite object ahead, we are apt to promise largely, and with the best intentions too; and what an object is it to get plenty of sugar for wife and children, without paying the grocer, - nay, with something to exchange with him for tea for the good woman! If the season be favorable, and the sap run well, and the bush be not too far off, the aid of the wife is not unfrequently called in, to tend fires and do the lighter part of the work. I have seen the pony saddled, and wife and baby mounted on it, and led into the woods, looking like the picture of Joseph and Mary going down into Egypt. What a primitive, pastoral air runs through all the arrangements of this backwoods life! It startles one sometimes to see things that bring back the oldest scenes on record.

The process called "sugaring-off" abstruse affair - is, I believe, not considered likely to be quite perfect without the aid of female hands, and the making of a sort of candy, pulled from hand to hand scientifically, is to be done by the young folks, of course. This is a frolic, or the excuse for one; and the candy is beautiful and most delicious. It is a part which I confess a weakness for myself; and it is not without sufficient precedent; for many a gay demoiselle has made her fingers sticky with la tire. But lest the reader should imagine I have got fast among the sugar-kettles, like a fly in a honey-pot, return we to our lambs-lovers, I mean; only premising that I expect thanks for this digression upon sugarmaking, as I take it for granted my reader is among those who are about emigrating to these fruitful wilds.

213

CHAPTER XLVII.

If from what her hand would do,
Her voice would utter, there ensue
Aught untoward or unfit,

She, in benign affections pure,

Sheds, round the transient harm or vague mischance,
A light unknown to tutored elegance.

WORDSWORTH.

THE season for sugar-making had arrived. The sun was oppressively hot during the greater part of the day, and yet the frost at night was as certain, if not as severe, as in January. The usual anxious race after kettles was in full cry, and all the world had but one object of interest. At this crisis William Beamer gave due notice to Mr. Arden that he should prosecute in case of any attempt to use the contested tract, and Arden on his part made his usual preparations, and proceeded to the boring of the trees, as if his claim had been confirmed by the majesty of the law. I dare say he was wrong; but our principal concern in the matter lies with our friend Lewis, who was sent on by his father to maintain possession at all hazards. About five hundred trees were bored, - kettles set, and a shanty built; and here Lewis, with a bed of hemlock branches, was to pass day and night, during the whole sugaring season.