Yes, we have sugar in plenty now, and, strange as it may seem, it comes
from the trees. It was Squanto, that true friend of ours, who showed
us how to take it from the maples, of which there are scores and scores
growing everywhere around us.
[Illustration]
To get it one has only to make a hole in a maple tree, and put therein
a small wooden spigot shaped like a spout, and straight-way, when the
first warm weather comes in the spring, the sap of the tree, mounting
from the roots to the branches, will run out of the hole through the
spout into whatsoever vessels we place beneath.
After that we boil it in kettles until it becomes thick like molasses,
or yet more, until it is real sugar, after having been poured in pans
of birch-bark to cool. It has a certain flavor such as is not to be
found in the sugar of England; but answers our purpose so well that
it can be used to sweeten the meal made from the corn, or eaten as a
dainty.