go and see him. Don't feel
badly, June," he continued, for the tears welled up to the eyes of the
black man as he spoke of his child; "we all must die."

"I knows dat, massa, but it am hard to hab 'em gwo."

"Yes, it is, June, but we may save him."

"Ef you cud, massa! Oh, ef you cud!" and the poor darky covered his face
with his great hands and sobbed like a child.

We rode on to another "still," and there dismounting, the Colonel
explained to me the process of gathering and manufacturing turpentine.
The trees are "boxed" and "tapped" early in the year, while the frost is
still in the ground. "Boxing" is the process of scooping a cavity in the
trunk of the tree by means of a peculiarly shaped axe, made for the
purpose; "tapping" is scarifying the rind of the wood above the boxes.
This is never done until the trees have been worked one season, but it
is then repeated year after year, till on many plantations they present
the marks of twenty and frequently thirty annual "tappings," and are
often denuded of bark for a distance of thirty feet from the ground. The
necessity for this annual tapping arises from the fact that the scar on
the trunk heals at the end of a season, and the sap will no longer run
from it; a fresh wound is therefore made each spring. The sap flows down
the scarified surface and collects in the boxes, which are emptied six
or eight times in a year, according to the length of the season. This is
the process of "dipping," and it is done with a tin or iron vessel
constructed to fit the cavity in the tree.

The turpentine gathered from the newly boxed or virgin tree is very
valuable, on account of its producing a peculiarly clear and white
rosin, which is used in the manufacture of the finer kinds of soap, and
by "Rosin the Bow." It commands, ordinarily, nearly five times the price
of the common article. When barrelled, the turpentine is frequently sent
to market in its crude state, but more often is distilled on the
plantation, the gatherers generally possessing means sufficient to own
a still.

In the process of distilling, the crude turpentine is "dumped" into the
boiler through an opening in the top--the same as that on which we saw
Junius composedly seated--water is then poured upon it, the aperture
made tight by screwing down the cover and packing it with clay, a fire
built underneath, and when the heat reaches several hundred degrees
Fahrenheit, the process of manufacture begins. The volatil