Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-03-16
Fun In a Sugar Bush.

mtduOWb, ''Olu NlIs w lIt II no kldu W ndNc
anybody come to see him that knows as
much about sugar as you do"
ITS all the hobby he's got" said her
brother Phin. "He makes the best maple
sugar in all these parts-whitest and clean
est. Biggest lot of it, too"
"I've heard him say" added Rush Potts,
"that no man was ever too old to learn.
Glad we could bring you along"
"There isn't much about sugar | don't
know" replied Jerry Buntley, modestly,
with pull at his dog-slSin gloves To make
them fit tighter. "You just ought to see
real sugar plantation once"
al would like to-" said Hannah Potts,
all the red in her rosy face coming to the
surface to meet the wind that blew in her
face from the direction of old Mr.. Wires
great forest on the hillside.
They were all cuddling down in Elder
Meadows great box sleigh, and Phin Mead
ows was putting the sorrel span along the
road in way that made their bells dance
lively enough, for the March thaw had only
just begun and the sleighing was capital.
Jerry Bentley had told them more about
sugar that day than they had ever heard be-
fore. 1t was a treat to them to be invited
to a maple-sugaring at old Mr. Wires, and
Jerry's country cousins were glad of having
something worth while to take with them
by way of payment; that is, they were glad
to take Jerry.
He was glad to go, and he talked sugar
until every soul in the sleigh thought he
could taste candy, and Phin found himself
comparing the color of his sorrel team to
that of the five pounds his mother sent back
to Barnes grocery store, because, as he said,
3" She wasn't going to pay any 'leven cents a
pound for building sand"
1t was not many minutes before they
pulled up in front of old Mr.. Wires big
rambling old farmhouse, and there were
Jim and Sally Wire coming out to meet
them. Old Mrs. Wire was in the doorway,
and she looked twenty years younger as soon
as they had look at her husband. Mainly
because the difference in their ages was
good deal more than that.
Nobody knew how tall Mr.. Wire would
have been if he had stood up, but the oldest
old ladies around Lenders Mills village all
said he'd had that stoop in his shoulders
ever since they'd known him.
"My mother used to say" said Elder
Meadows, Z" that old Wires father was a
short, stocky man, and built his log house to
fit himself, and so when his son got taller'n
he was himself, he had to hold his head
down, specially coming through the door,"
There he was now, and the visitors had
not been in the house five minutes before
Salina Meadows told how much Jerry Bunt-
ley knew about sugar.
His father sells tons OF 1t, and his broth
er's clerk in sugar store, and his uncle's
book-keeper in a sugar refinery in the
city"
"Ten stories hight" put in Jerry, with
down look of modesty.
s"-and he's seen sugar plantations, and
molasses factories, and where they make all
sorts of candy"
"You don't sayl' exclaimed Mrs. Wire
I'm glad you fetched him along"
"Wa'al, som l." said old Mr.. Wire. No
man amt never too old to Farm. I've only
been a-bilin' sap for leetle risin' of fifty
year, and | don't know much. You're Jest
In time. The suns lookin' down warm to-
day, and we was Jest a-wantin' to set out for
the BUSH"
at isn't the fur-away bush," said Mrs.
Wire; otis that there patch highest the
house. The trees amt been tapped this five
year. and they'll run the best kind"
"Therell be more here by and by" said
Sally Wire. Don't take your things off.
Well have real good time"
Old Mr.. Wire took jerry Buntley right
tiOuS WIFI uiu-uuuCl WluS, 90 1Ou
might say. He asked him questions, too,
Jerry made him exclaim, You don't say /"
or, " Do tell, now, is that so ?"
The forest had been left standing on all
that hillside for nothing else but sugar. 1t
was not half an hour before the Wires and
their visitors were crunching over the crust
| among the trees or standing around the
great fires that had been built and lit before
they came Every fire had great iron
kettle on it, and every kettle was bubbling
| for dear life, except when dash OF cold
sap was ladled into it from the barrel that
stood under the nearest tree.
ats afternoon now," said Sally Wire. al
do hope the other folks'll get here before it's
too dark. But then we can have a good
| time at the house in the evening"
"Boys," said old Mr.. Wire, "if you want
to help, you Jest take them two auger bits
and them spiles, and go and take fresh lot
| of trees over there TO the BASTARD. Jim and
| III go round with the buckets"
| Wonderfully white and clean were all his
| buckets and shoulder-yokes, and his wooden
troughs that caught the sap as it dripped
| into them from the ends of the wooden
spiles he had driven into the trees he had
tapped already. There was plenty of work
for him and his sons, and so Jerry Buntley
and Phin Meadows and Rush Potts marched
away to the east, while the girls hung around
the kettles, and tested the syrup, in every
way they knew how, to see if any of it had
boiled long enough.
oven have plenty to sugar off with in
the house this evening"" said Sally Wire
"but we mustn't let any of it get burned"
Jerry took possession of an auger and a
bundle of spiles, and Phin took the other
auger, and Rush Potts said he'd Just 60
along to learn how.
Catching cold are you, Phineas 2" asked
Jerry, as he began to work his auger into a
splendidly tall tree, and Phin and Rush both
we're seized with sudden fit of coughing
"Ugh, ugh, ugh-no-ugh-I guess not
Bore it deep, Jerry. Old man Wire is par
ticular about that"
"Guess know how to tap tree" said
Jerry. "The sun shines right on this one
and the sap'll run well.
"Ugh-ugh-ugh," coughed Rush Potts
al guess III help Phin. He doesn't know
as much as you do"
al should say not" diflidently replied
Jerry; but he had finished his first tree quite
skillfully, and now he went for his second
with all the zeal of a true sportsman.
| 90 phineas" he shouted a moment later