asily obtain enough if he only took the proper time and care.

With this new plan in his mind, Tom retired for the night, and awaked
the next morning by the dawn of day. It was still foggy; but he was
now so resigned, and was so full of his new plan, that it did not
trouble him in the slightest degree. In fact, he was so anxious to try
this, that the sight of a boat landing on the beach, all ready to take
him off, would not have afforded him an unmixed satisfaction.

He took his tin dipper, and went up at once into the woods. Here he
looked around very carefully, and soon found what he wanted. He knew
perfectly well, of course, how to distinguish spruce trees from fir, by
the sharp, prickly spires of the former, and so he was never at a loss
which trees to search. No sooner had he begun, than he was surprised
at the quantities that he found. To an ordinary observer the trunk of
the spruce tree seems like any other tree trunk--no rougher, and
perhaps somewhat smoother than many; but Tom now found that on every
tree almost there were little round excrescences, which, on being
picked at with the knife, came off readily, and proved to be gum. Vast
quantities of a substance which goes by the name of spruce gum are
manufactured and sold; but the pure gum is a very different article,
having a rich, balsamic odor, and a delicate yet delicious flavor; and
Tom, as he filled his pan, and inhaled the fragrance that was emitted
by its contents, lamented that his necessities compelled him to use it
for such a purpose as that to which this was destined. After four or
five hours' work, he found that he had gathered enough. He had filled
his pan no less than six times, and had secured a supply which was
amply sufficient to give a coating of thick gum over all the fractured
place. The tide, which had already risen, was now falling, and, as
soon as the boat was aground, and the water out of her, Tom proceeded
to raise her bows, in precisely the same manner as he had raised the
boat on a former occasion.

The next thing was to bring the gum into a fit condition for use. This
he did by kindling the fire, and melting it in his tin pan. This would
rather interfere with the use of that article as a cooking utensil, but
now that Tom's mind was full of this new purpose, cooking and things of
that sort had lost all attractions for him. As for food, there was no
fear about that. He had his biscuit, and the lobster and shell-fish
whic