furniture."

"But isn't it a shame," said Clara, "to spoil the maple-sugar by making
the trees into chairs and things?"

"You would not think so," replied her governess, "if you needed the
'chairs and things' more than you need the sugar. But the supply of
trees seems to be sufficient for both purposes."

"Does the sugar come right out of the tree when people tap on it with a
hammer?" asked Edith, whose ideas of sugar-making were rather crude.

"You blessed baby!" cried Malcolm, with a shout of laughter. Let's take
our hammers and go after some maple-sugar right away."

"No, Edie," said Miss Harson as she took her much-loved little pupil on
her lap; "we'll stay at home and learn just how the sugar is made. To
_tap_ a tree, dear, means to make cuts in the trunk for the sap to flow
out, and in the sugar-maple this sap is more like water than sugar. From
the middle of February to the second week in March, according to the
warmth or the coldness of the locality, is the time for tapping the
trees; and when the holes are bored, spouts of elder or sumac from which
the pith has been taken are put into them at one end, while the other
goes down to the bucket which receives the sap. 'Several holes are so
bored that their spouts shall lead to the same bucket, and high enough
to allow the bucket to hang two or three feet from the ground, to
prevent leaves and dirt from being blown in.' The next thing is to boil
the sap, and this is done in great iron kettles, over immense
wood-fires, out there among the trees, with plenty of snow on the
ground, and only two or three rude little cabins for the men and boys to
sleep in. This is called 'the sugar-camp,' and the sap-season lasts five
or six weeks."

"And why is it boiled?"

"Boiling drives the water off in vapor, and leaves the sugar behind in
the pot."

"And do they stay in the woods there all the time?" asked Malcolm, with
great interest. "What lots of fun they must have, with the big fires and
the snow and as much maple-sugar as ever they want to eat! _I'd_ like
to stay in a sugar-camp in the woods."

[Illustration: MAKING MAPLE SUGAR.]

"Perhaps not, after trying it and finding how much hard work there is in
sugar-making," replied his governess. "'The kettles must be carefully
watched and plenty of wood brought to keep them boiling, and during the
process the sap, or syrup, is strained; lime or salaeratus is added, to
neutralize the free acid; and the white of egg, isin