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Tom in the basket.

The ride behind.

Phonny watches him.

CHAPTER VI.

FRANCO FOUND.

IT was quite warm and pleasant, coming home, and Malleville sat up under the canopy, looking about. She watched the dog, or rather the basket which contained the dog, for some minutes. Tom struggled a little from time to time, as if he were trying to get out; but when he found that it was of no avail, he seemed to become quiet. He was so still that Phonny said he verily believed that he was asleep. He drew in the cord by which the hand sled was fastened to the palanquin, so as to pull the hand sled up very near to them. Phonny was going to pull open the cloth a little and peep in to see what Tom was doing, but Malleville persuaded him not to do it, lest he should wake him. So Phonny let the string of the sled out again gradually, and the sled fell back into its place, like a boat towed behind a vessel.

Malleville was very much interested in looking at the wild and romantic scenery of the glen. She had been accustomed to city life in

The scenery in the glen.

Boy driving steers.

New York, where her father and mother lived, and every thing looked strange and wonderful to her in this wild and wintry valley. The picturesque precipices, the dark groves of firs and pines, the smooth and white expanse in the bottom of the valley, which Phonny told her was the mill-pond, covered with ice and snow, the long winding road track upon the ice, with here and there a horse and sleigh, or a team of oxen drawing a loaded sled, moving slowly upon it, the school-house seen at a distance across the bridge, and the bridge itself, with a little snowy dell instead of a stream of water beneath it, all attracted her attention and in

terested her very much.

At last, just before reaching the bridge, they overtook a small boy, driving a pair of steers, that is, very young oxen. The steers were drawing a drag, which had a barrel fastened to it. The boy drove his steers out to one side of the road, when he saw the palanquin coming, so as to make room for Beechnut to pass by him. When he was fairly out of the way, he stopped the steers, and stood leaning upon them and looking at the palanquin with a countenance of great curiosity and wonder. As it came up opposite to him, and he saw Beechnut

H

Phonny asks about the sap.

Mode of tapping.

and Phonny, his countenance relaxed into a smile. He nodded to Phonny. Phonny nodded to him.

"Hye, Andrew," said Phonny, "does it run well to-day?"

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First-rate," said Andrew.

By this time the palanquin had got by, but Malleville looked around and could see Andrew bringing his steers back into the road again as they rode rapidly on.

the

"Does what run well?" asked Malleville.

The sap," said Phonny. "The sap from sugar trees."

Phonny then explained to Malleville that there was a kind of tree which had sweet sap, and the people in that part of the country were accustomed to bore holes in such trees and drive in hollow plugs, and put buckets on the ground, under the ends of the plugs. The sap then which oozed from the trees, would run out through the plugs and drop into the buckets. When the buckets were full, the men would pour the sap into a barrel, and haul it home on a drag, and so boil it down into sugar.

"Boil it down into sugar?" repeated Malleville.

"Yes," said Phonny, "they put it into a mon

Phonny explains the process of sugar making.

strous great kettle, and boil it till it turns into sugar."

66

Why does it?" asked Malleville.

"I don't know," said Phonny. "It always does."

"If we could get some sap," he continued, "and put it in a kettle over a fire, and boil it down, it would soon turn, first into sweet syrup, and afterward into sugar,-into maple sugar."

"Let us try," said Malleville.

Well," said Phonny, "we will try some time. There!" said he, "you can see the buckets there, under the trees."

So saying, Phonny pointed to the woods on one side of the road.

The trees were not evergreens, like those which grew on the declivities of the mountains, but the branches were bare. Malleville could see a great way in among the trees, as there were no leaves upon the branches. The ground was covered with snow. A great many of the trees had buckets standing close to them upon the snow. "Those buckets are full of sap, or getting full," said Phonny,-" sweet sap."

"I wish I could go and see," said Malleville.

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Road into the woods.

The hollow plugs.

The river stone.

road that leads in among the trees, a little far

ther along.

It was

They came to the road pretty soon. the road made by Andrew's drag. Beechnut drove in. When he had got in among the trees that were tapped, he stopped near one of them, and helped Malleville out of the palanquin. Malleville was very much interested in examining the plug, and in seeing the sap drop, drop, drop, from the end of the plug down into the bucket. Beechnut pulled out the plug, and let her see the hole which had been bored into the tree. He also let her take the plug and examine it. It was hollow from end to end, and she could look through it.

"How do they make such a hollow plug?" asked Malleville.

"They make them out of elder bush stems," said Phonny. "You see the elder bush stems have a very large and soft pith, and you can punch the pith out with a small round stick, and that makes the plug hollow. I can make such plugs as these myself. There are plenty of elder bushes down by the river stone."

This river stone was a large flat stone on the point where the brook flowed into the river. It may be seen in the frontispiece, near the center

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