For the Vermont boy the
maple sugar season ia about
the merriest time in all the
year.
Up on the slope of the

Green Mountains his father

very likely has a grove of

A DooBLB DBiw. sugap-maplo trees, covering

perhaps many acres of land.
There is the sugar-house where the sap is to be boiled,

and if the grove is several miles from the farm, this house is



THIRD BOOK. 199

large enough to serve as a camp, for the men who make the
sugar may stay here several weeks.
What fun it is for the boys to sleep at night on a bed of
soft hemlock boughs with a bag of hay for a pillow ! And
how hungry they are. The potatf^s are roasted in the ashes of
the roaring open fire, and the ham is broiled upon a crotched
stick over the blaze !

In making maple sugar the trees are first tapped, that is,



A VETEIUH TRAH DOBS TBI l)TnCKEST WORK.
bored into about an inch and a half, at a height of about
three or four feet above the ground. A spout is then driven
into the tree, and a bucket is hung below the spout.
The boys carry pails in which to collect the sap from the



200 ABOUND THE WORLD.
trees near the house, but that from the trees farther away in
the woods U poured into big tubs, drawn on a sled by a
stout pair of horses.
When the sap is first collected it is clear and sparkling,
and it should be boiled at once or it will grow clouded, and
the sugar will be dark and lacking in delicate flavor.
