"If I become not a cart as well as another man, a plague on my
bringing up."
SHAKESPEARE.
Every day could not be as bright as the last, even by the help
of pitch pine knots. They blazed, indeed, many a time, but the
blaze shone upon faces that it could not sometimes light up.
Matters drew gradually within a smaller and smaller compass.
Another five dollars came from uncle Orrin, and the hope of
more; but these were carefully laid by to pay Philetus; and
for all other wants of the household excepting those the farm
supplied, the family were dependent on mere driblets of sums.
None came from Mr. Rossitur. Hugh managed to collect a very
little. That kept them from absolute distress that, and
Fleda's delicate instrumentality. Regular dinners were given
up, fresh meat being now unheard of, unless when a kind
neighbour made them a present; and appetite would have lagged
sadly but for Fleda's untiring care. She thought no time nor
pains ill bestowed which could prevent her aunt and Hugh from
feeling the want of old comforts; and her nicest skill was
displayed in varying the combinations of their very few and
simple stores. The diversity and deliciousness of her bread-
stuffs, Barby said, was "beyond everything!" and a cup of rich
coffee was found to cover all deficiencies of removes and
_entremets;_ and this was always served, Barby said further, as
if the President of the United States was expected. Fleda
never permitted the least slackness in the manner of doing
this or anything else that she could control.
Mr. Plumfield had sent down an opportune present of a fine
porker. One cold day in the beginning of February, Fleda was
busy in the kitchen, making something. for dinner, and Hugh at
another table was vigorously chopping sausage-meat.
"I should like to have some cake again," said Fleda.
"Well, why don't you?" said Hugh, chopping away.
"No eggs, Mr. Rossitur and can't afford 'em at two shillings
a dozen. I believe I am getting discontented I have a great
desire to do something to distinguish myself I would make a
plumpudding if I had raisins, but there is not one in the
house."
"You can get 'em up to Mr. Hemps's for six pence a pound,"
said Barby.
But Fleda shook her head at the sixpence, and went on moulding
out her biscuits diligently.
"I wish Philetus would make his appearance with the cows it
is a very odd thing they should be gone since yesterday
morning, and no news of them."
"I only hope the snow aint so bright it'll blind his eyes,"
said Barby.
"There he is this minute," said Hugh. "It is impossible to
tell from his countenance whether successful or not."
"Well, where are the cows, Mr. Skillcorn?" said Barby, as he
came in.
"I have went all over town," said the person addressed, "and
they aint no place."
"Have you asked news of them, Philetus?"
"I have asked the hull town, and I have went all over, 'till I
was a'most beat out with the cold and I ha'n't seen the
first sight of 'em yet!"
Fleda and Hugh exchanged looks, while Barby and Mr. Skillcorn
entered into an animated discussion of probabilities and
impossibilities.
"If we should be driven from our coffee dinners to tea with no
milk in it!" said Hugh, softly, in mock dismay.
"Wouldn't!" said Fled. "We'd beat up an egg and put it in the
coffee."
"We couldn't afford it," said Hugh, smiling.
"Could! cheaper than to keep the cows. I'll have some sugar
at any rate, I'm determined. Philetus!"
"Marm!"
"I wish, when you have got a good pile of wood chopped, you
would make some troughs to put under the maple trees you
know how to make them, don't you?"
"I do."
"I wish you would make some you have pine logs out there
large enough, haven't you?"
"They hadn't ought to want much of it there's some 'gregious
big ones!"
"I don't know how many we shall want, but a hundred or two, at
any rate; and the sooner the better. Do you know how much
sugar they make from one tree?"
"Waul, I don't," said Mr. Skillcorn, with the air of a person
who was at fault on no other point; "the big trees gives more
than the little ones "
Fleda's eyes flashed at Hugh, who took to chopping in sheer
desperation; and the muscles of both gave them full occupation
for five minutes. Philetus stood comfortably warming himself
at the fire, looking first at one and then at the other, as if
they were a show, and he had paid for it. Barby grew
impatient.
"I guess this cold weather makes lazy people of me!' she said,
bustling about her fire with an amount of energy that was
significant. It seemed to signify nothing to Philetus; he only
moved a little out of the way.
"Didenhover's cleared out," he burst forth, at length,
abruptly.
"What!" said Fleda and Barby at once, the broom and the
biscuits standing still.
"Mr. Didenhover."
"What of him?"
"He has tuk himself off out o' town."
"Where to?"
"I can't tell where teu he aint coming back, tain't likely."
"How do you know?"
" 'Cause he's tuk all his traps and went, and he said farming
didn't pay, and he wa'n't a-going to have nothin' more to deu
with it; he telled Mis' Simpson so he lived to Mis'
Simpson's; and she telled Mr. Ten Eyck."
"Are you sure, Philetus?"
"Sure as 'lection! he telled Mis' Simpson so, and she telled
Mr. Ten Eyck; and he's cleared out."
Fleda and Hugh again looked at each other. Mr. Skillcorn
having now delivered himself of his news, went out to the
woodyard.
"I hope he ha'n't carried off our cows along with him," said
Barby, as she, too, went out to some other part of her
premises.
"He was to have made us quite a payment on the first of
March," said Fleda.
"Yes, and that was to have gone to uncle Orrin," said Hugh.
"We shall not see a cent of it. And we wanted a little of it
for ourselves. I have that money from the _Excelsior_, but I
can't touch a penny of it, for it must go to Philetus's wages.
What Barby does without hers, I do not know; she has had but
one five dollars in six months. Why she stays I cannot
imagine; unless it is for pure love."
"As soon as the spring opens, I can go to the mill again,"
said Hugh, after a little pause. Fleda looked at him
sorrowfully, and shook her head as she withdrew her eyes.
"I wish father would give up the farm," Hugh went on, under
his breath. "I cannot bear to live upon uncle Orrin so."
Fleda's answer was to clasp her hands. Her only words were,
"Don't say anything to aunt Lucy."
"It is of no use to say anything to anybody," said Hugh. "But
it weighs me to the ground, Fleda."
"If uncle Rolf doesn't come home by spring I hope, I hope he
will! but if he does not, I will take desperate measures. I
will try farming myself, Hugh. I have thought of it, and I
certainly will. I will get Earl Douglass, or somebody else, to
play second fiddle, but I will have but one head on the farm,
and I will try what mine is worth."
"You could not do it, Fleda."
"One can do anything! with a strong enough motive."
"I'm afraid you'd soon be tired, Fleda."
"Not if I succeeded not so tired as I am now."
"Poor Fleda! I dare say you are tired!"
"It wasn't _that_ I meant," said Fleda, slightly drawing her
breath; "I meant this feeling of everything going wrong, and
uncle Orrin, and all."
"But you _are_ weary," said Hugh, affectionately. "I see it in
your face."
"Not so much body as mind, after all. Oh, Hugh! this is the
worst part of being poor the constant occupation of one's
mind on a miserable succession of trifles. I am so weary
sometimes! If I only had a nice book to rest myself for a
while, and forget all these things, I would give so much for
it! "
"Dear Fleda, I wish you had!"
"That was one delight of being in New York; I forgot all about
money, from one end of it to the other; I put all that away;
and not having to think of meals till I came to eat them. You
can't think how tired I get of ringing the changes on pork and
flour, and Indian meal, and eggs, and vegetables!"
Fleda looked tired, and pale; and Hugh looked sadly conscious
of it.
"Don't tell aunt Lucy I have said all this!" she exclaimed,
after a moment, rousing herself; "I don't always feel so; only
once in a while I get such a fit. And now, I have just
troubled you by speaking of it."
"You don't trouble any one in that way very often, dear
Fleda," said Hugh, kissing her.
"I ought not at all you have enough else to think of; but it
is a kind of relief sometimes. I like to do these things in
general only now and then I get tired, as I was just now, I
suppose, and then one sees everything through a different
medium."
"I am afraid it would tire you more to have the charge of Earl
Douglass and the farm upon your mind; and mother could be no
help to you, nor I, if I am at the mill."
"But there's Seth Plumfield. Oh, I've thought of it all. You
don't know what I am up to, Mr. Rossitur. You shall see how I
will manage unless uncle Rolf comes home, in which case I
will very gladly forego all my honours and responsibilities
together."
"I hope he will come!" said Hugh.
But this hope was to be disappointed. Mr. Rossitur wrote again
about the first of March, saying, that he hoped to make
something of his lands in Michigan, and that he had the
prospect of being engaged in some land agencies, which would
make it worth his while to spend the summer there. He bade his
wife let anybody take the farm that could manage it, and would
pay; and to remit to Dr. Gregory whatever she should receive,
and could spare. He hoped to do something where he was.
It was just then the beginning of the sugar season, and Mrs.
Douglass having renewed and urged Earl's offer of help, Fleda
sent Philetus down to ask him to come the next day with his
team. Seth Plumfield's, which had drawn the wood in the
winter, was now busy in his own sugar business. On Earl
Douglass's ground there happened to be no maple-trees. His
lands were of moderate extent, and almost entirely cultivated
as a sheep farm; and Mr. Douglass himself, though in very
comfortable circumstances, was in the habit of assisting, on
advantageous terms, all. the farmers in the neighbourhood.
Philetus came back again in a remarkably short time; and
announced that he had met Dr. Quackenboss in the way, who had
offered to come with his team for the desired service.
"Then you have not been to Mr. Douglass's?"
"I have not," said Philetus "I thought likely you wouldn't
calculate to want him teu."
"How came the doctor to know what you were going for?"
"I told him."
"But how came you to tell him?''
"Waul, I guess he had a mind to know," said Philetus; "so I
didn't keep it no closer than I had teu."
"Well," said Fleda, biting her lips, "you will have to go down
to Mr. Douglass's, nevertheless, Philetus, and tell him the
doctor is coming to-morrow, but I should be very much obliged
to him if he will be here next day. Will you?"
"Yes, marm!"
"Now, dear Hugh, will you make me those little spouts for the
trees? of some dry wood : you can get plenty out here. You
want to split them, up with a hollow chisel, about a quarter
of an inch thick, and a little more than half an inch broad.
Have you got a hollow chisel?"
"No, but I can get one up the hill. Why must it be hollow?"
"To make little spouts, you know, for the sap to run in. And
then, my dear Hugh, they must be sharpened at one end so as to
fit where the chisel goes in. I am afraid I have given you a
day's work of it. How sorry I am you must go to-morrow to the
mill! and yet I am glad too."
"Why need you go round yourself with these people?" said Hugh.
"I don't see the sense of it."
"They don't know where the trees are," said Fleda.
"I am sure I do not. Do you?"
"Perfectly well. And besides," said Fleda, laughing, "I should
have great doubts of the discreetness of Philetus's auger if
it were left to his simple direction. I have no notion the
trees would yield their sap as kindly to him as to me. But I
didn't bargain for Dr. Quackenboss."
Dr. Quackenboss arrived punctually the next morning with his
oxen and sled; and, by the time it was loaded with the sap-
troughs, Fleda, in her black cloak, yarn shawl, and grey
little hood, came out of the house to the wood-yard. Earl
Douglass was there, too, not with his team, but merely to see
how matters stood, and give advice.
"Good day, Mr. Douglass!" said the doctor. "You see I'm so
fortunate as to have got the start of you."
"Very good," said Earl, contentedly; "you may have it: the
start's one thing, and the pull's another. I'm willin' anybody
should have the start, but it takes a pull to know whether a
man's got stuff in him or no."
"What do you mean?" said the doctor.
"I don't mean nothin' at all. You make a start to-day, and
I'll come ahint and take the pull to-morrow. Ha' you got
anythin' to boil down in, Fleda? There's a potash kittle
somewheres, aint there? I guess there is. There is in most
houses."
"There is a large kettle I suppose large enough," said
Fleda.
"That'll do, I guess. Well, what do you calculate to put the
syrup in? Ha' you got a good big cask, or plenty o' tubs and
that? or will you sugar off the hull lot every night, and fix
it that way? You must do one thing or t'other, and it's good
to know what you're a-going to do afore you come to do it."
"I don't know, Mr. Douglass," said Fleda. "Whichever is the
best way: we have no cask large enough, I am afraid."
"Well, I tell you what I'll do. I know where there's a tub,
and where they aint usin' it, nother, and I reckon I can get
'em to let me have it I reckon I can; and I'll go round
for't and fetch it here to-morrow mornin' when I come with the
team. 'Twont be much out of my way. It's more handier to leave
the sugarin' off till the next day; and it had ought to have a
settlin' besides. Where'll you have your fire built? in
doors or out?"
"Out, I would rather, if we can. But can we?"
"La! 'tain't nothin' easier; it's as easy out as in. All
you've got to do is to take and roll a couple of pretty sized
billets for your fireplace, and stick a couple o' crotched
sticks for to hang the kittle over: I'd as lieve have it out
as in, and if anythin', a leetle liever. If you'll lend me
Philetus, me and him 'll fix it all ready agin you come back;
'tain't no trouble at all; and if the sticks aint here, we'll
go into the woods after 'em, and have it all sot up."
But Fleda represented that the services of Philetus were just
then in requisition, and that there would be no sap brought
home till to-morrow.
"Very good!" said Earl, amicably "_very_ good! it's just as
easy done one day as another it don't make no difference to
me: and if it makes any difference to you, of course, we'll
leave it to-day, and there'll be time enough to do it to-
morrow. Me and him 'll knock it up in a whistle. What's them
little shingles for?"
Fleda explained the use and application of Hugh's mimic
spouts. He turned one about, whistling, while he listened to
her.
"That's some o' Seth Plumfield's new jigs, aint it? I wonder
if he thinks now the sap's a-goin' to run any sweeter out o'
that 'ere than it would off the end of a chip that wa'n't
quite so handsome?"
"No, Mr. Douglass," said Fleda smiling, "he only thinks that
this will catch a little more."
"His sugar wont never tell where it come from," remarked Earl,
throwing the spout down. "Well, you shall see more o' me to-
morrow. Good-bye, Dr. Quackenboss."
"Do you contemplate the refining process?" said the doctor, as
they moved off.
"I have often contemplated the want of it," said Fleda; "but
it is best not to try to do too much. I should like to make
sure of something worth refining in the first place."
"Mr. Douglass and I," said the doctor "I hope a he's a
very good-hearted man, Miss Fleda, but, ha! ha! he wouldn't
suffer loss from a little refining himself. Haw! you rascal
where are you going? Haw! I tell ye"
"I am very sorry, Dr. Quackenboss," said Fleda, when she had
the power and the chance to speak again "I am very sorry you
should have to take this trouble; but, unfortunately, the art
of driving oxen is not among Mr. Skillcorn's accomplishments."
"My dear Miss Ringgan!" said the doctor, "I I nothing, I
assure you, could give me greater pleasure than to drive my
oxen to any place where you would like to have them go."
Poor Fleda wished she could have despatched them and him in
one direction while she took another; the art of driving oxen
_quietly_ was certainly not among the doctor's accomplishments.
She was almost deafened. She tried to escape from the
immediate din by running before to show Philetus about tapping
the trees and fixing the little spouts, but it was a longer
operation than she had counted upon, and by the time they were
ready to leave the tree the doctor was gee-hawing alongside of
it; and then if the next maple was not within sight she could
not in decent kindness leave him alone. The oxen went slowly,
and though Fleda managed to have no delay longer than to throw
down a trough as the sled came up with each tree which she and
Philetus had tapped, the business promised to make a long day
of it. It might have been a pleasant day in pleasant company;
but Fleda's spirits were down to set out with, and Doctor
Quackenboss was not the person to give them the needed spring;
his long-winded complimentary speeches had not interest enough
even to divert her. She felt that she was entering upon an
untried and most weighty undertaking; charging her time and
thoughts with a burden they could well spare. Her energies did
not flag, but the spirit that should have sustained them was
not strong enough for the task.
It was a blustering day of early March, with that
uncompromising brightness of sky and land which has no shadow
of sympathy with a heart overcast. The snow still lay a foot
thick over the ground, thawing a little in sunny spots; the
trees quite bare and brown, the buds even of the early maples
hardly showing colour; the blessed evergreens alone doing
their utmost to redeem the waste, and speaking of patience and
fortitude that can brave the blast and outstand the long
waiting, and cheerfully bide the time when "the winter shall
be over and gone." Poor Fleda thought they were like her in
their circumstances, but she feared she was not like them in
their strong endurance. She looked at the pines and hemlocks
as she passed, as if they were curious preachers to her; and
when she had a chance, she prayed quietly that she might stand
faithfully like them to cheer a desolation far worse, and she
feared far more abiding than snows could make or melt away.
She thought of Hugh, alone in his mill-work that rough chilly
day, when the wind stalked through the woods and over the
country as if it had been the personification of March just
come of age and taking possession of his domains. She thought
of her uncle, doing what? in Michigan leaving them to
fight with difficulties as they might why? why? and her
gentle aunt at home sad and alone, pining for the want of them
all, but most of him, and fading with their fortunes. And
Fleda's thoughts travelled about from one to the other, and
dwelt with them all by turns till she was heart-sick; and
tears, tears fell hot on the snow many a time when her eyes
had a moment's shield from the doctor and his somewhat more
obtuse coadjutor. She felt half superstitiously, as if with
her taking the farm were beginning the last stage of their
falling prospects, which would leave them with none of hope's
colouring. Not that in the least she doubted her own ability
and success; but her uncle did not deserve to have his affairs
prosper under such a system, and she had no faith that they
would.
"It is most grateful," said the doctor, with that sideway
twist of his jaw and his head at once, in harmony "it is a
most grateful thing to see such a young lady Haw! there now!
what are you about? haw haw? then! It is a most grateful
thing to see "
But Fleda was not at his side she had bounded away and was
standing under a great maple-tree a little a-head, making sure
that Philetus screwed his auger _up_ into the tree instead of
_down_, which he had several times shown an unreasonable desire
to do. The doctor had steered his oxen by her little grey hood
and black cloak all the day. He made for it now.
"Have we arrived at the termination of our a adventure?"
said he, as he came up and threw down the last trough.
"Why, no, Sir," said Fleda, "for we have yet to get home
again."
" 'Tain't so fur going that way as it were this'n," said
Philetus. "My! aint I glad?"
"Glad of what?" said the doctor. "Here's Miss Ringgan's walked
the whole way, and she a lady aint you ashamed to speak of
being tired?"
"I ha'n't said the first word o' being tired!" said Philetus,
in an injured tone of voice "but a man ha'n't no right to
kill hisself, if he aint a gal!"
"I'll qualify to your being safe enough," said the doctor.
"But, Miss Ringgan, my dear, you are a you have lost
something since you came out "
"What?" said Fleda, laughing. "Not my patience?"
"No," said the doctor, "no you're a you're an angel! but
your cheeks, my dear Miss Ringgan, show that you have exceeded
your a "
"Not my intentions, doctor," said Fleda, lightly. "I am very
well satisfied with our day's work, and with my share of it,
and a cup of coffee will make me quite up again. Don't look at
my cheeks till then."
"I shall disobey you constantly," said the doctor; "but, my
dear Miss Fleda, we must give you some felicities for reaching
home, or Mrs. Rossitur will be a distressed when she sees
them. Might I propose that you should just bear your weight
on this wood-sled, and let my oxen and me have the honour
The cup of coffee, I am confident, would be at your lips
considerably earlier "
"The sun wont be a great haighth by the time we get there,"
said Philetus, in a cynical manner; "and I ha'n't took the
first thing to-day!"
"Well, who has?" said the doctor; "you aint the only one.
Follow your nose down hill, Mr. Skillcorn, and it'll smell
supper directly. Now, my dear Miss Ringgan, will you?"
Fleda hesitated, but her relaxed energies warned her not to
despise a homely mode of relief. The wood-sled was pretty
clean, and the road decently good over the snow. So Fleda
gathered her cloak about her, and sat down flat on the bottom
of her rustic vehicle too grateful for the rest to care if
there had been a dozen people to laugh at her but the doctor
was only delighted, and Philetus regarded every social
phenomenon as coolly, and in the same business light, as he
would the butter to his bread, or any other infallible every-
day matter.
Fleda was very glad presently that she had taken this plan,
for, besides the rest of body, she was happily relieved from
all necessity of speaking. The doctor, though but a few paces
off, was perfectly given up to the care of his team, in the
intense anxiety to show his skill and gallantry in saving her
harmless from every ugly place in the road that threatened a
jar or a plunge. Why his oxen didn't go distracted was a
question; but the very vehemence and iteration of his cries at
last drowned itself in Fleda's ear, and she could hear it like
the wind's roaring, without thinking of it. She presently
subsided to that. With a weary frame, and with that peculiar
quietness of spirits that comes upon the ending of a day's
work in which mind and body have both been busily engaged, and
the sudden ceasing of any call upon either, fancy asked no
leave, and dreamily roved hither and thither between the
material and the spirit world; the will too subdued to stir.
Days gone by came marshalling their scenes and their actors
before her; again she saw herself a little child under those
same trees that stretched their great black arms over her
head, and, swaying their tops in the wind, seemed to beckon
her back to the past. They talked of their old owner, whose
steps had so often passed beneath them with her own light
tread light now, but how dancing then! by his side; and of
her father, whose hand perhaps had long ago tapped those very
trees where she had noticed the old closed-up scars of the
axe. At any rate, his boyhood had rejoiced there, and she
could look back to one time at least in his manhood when she
had taken a pleasant walk with him in summer weather among
those same woods in that very ox-track she believed. Gone
two generations that she had known there; hopes and fears and
disappointments, akin to her own, at rest, as hers would be;
and how sedately the old trees stood telling her of it, and
waving their arms in grave and gentle commenting on the folly
of anxieties that came and went with the wind. Fleda agreed to
it all; she heard all they said; and her own spirit was as
sober and quiet as their quaint moralizing. She felt as if it
would never dance again.
The wind had greatly abated of its violence; as if satisfied
with the show of strength it had given in the morning, it
seemed willing to make no more commotion that day. The sun was
far on his way to the horizon, and many a broad hill-side
slope was in shadow; the snow had blown or melted from off the
stones and rocks, leaving all their roughness and bareness
unveiled; and the white crust of snow that lay between them
looked a cheerless waste in the shade of the wood and the
hill. But there were other spots where the sunbeams struck,
and bright streams of light ran between the trees, smiling and
making them smile. And as Fleda's eye rested there, another
voice seemed to say "At evening time it shall be light," and
"Sorrow may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the
morning." She could have cried, but spirits were too
absolutely at an ebb. She knew this was partly physical,
because she was tired and faint, but it could not the better
be overcome. Yet those streaks of sunlight were pleasant
company, and Fleda watched them, thinking how bright they used
to be once; till the oxen and sled came out from the woods,
and she could see the evening colours on the hill-tops beyond
the village, lighting up the whole landscape with promise of
the morrow. She thought her day had seen its brightest; but
she thought too that if she must know sorrows, it was a very
great blessing to know them at Queechy.
The smoke of the chimney-tops came in sight, and fancy went
home a few minutes before her.
"I wonder what you'll take and do to yourself next," said
Barby, in extreme vexation, when she saw her come in. "You're
as white as the wall, and as cold, aint you? I'd ha' let
Philetus cut all the trees, and drink all the sap afterwards.
I wonder which you think is the worst, the want o' you, or the
want o' sugar."
A day's headache was pretty sure to visit Fleda after any
overexertion or exhaustion, and the next day justified Barby's
fears. She was the quiet prisoner of pain. But Earl Douglass
and Mr. Skillcorn could now do without her in the woods; and
her own part of the trouble Fleda always took with speechless
patience. She had the mixed comfort that love could bestow
Hugh's sorrowful kiss and look before setting off for the
mill, Mrs. Rossitur's caressing care, and Barby's softened
voice, and sympathizing hand on her brow, and hearty heart-
speaking kiss; and poor little King lay all day with his head
in her lap, casting grave wistful glances up at his mistress's
face, and licking her hand with intense affection when even in
her distress it stole to his head to reward and comfort him.
He never would budge from her side, or her feet, till she
could move herself, and he knew that she was well. As sure as
King came trotting into the kitchen, Barby used to look into
the other room, and say, "So you're better, aint you, Fleda? I
knowed it."
After hours of suffering, the fit was at last over; and in the
evening, though looking and feeling racked, Fleda would go out
to see the sap-boilers. Earl Douglass and Philetus had had a
very good day of it, and now were in full blast with the
evening part of the work. The weather was mild, and having the
stay of Hugh's arm, Fleda grew too amused to leave them.
It was a very pretty scene. The sap-boilers had planted
themselves near the cellar door on the other side of the house
from the kitchen door and the woodyard the casks and tubs
for syrup being under cover there; and there they had made a
most picturesque work-place. Two strong crotched sticks were
stuck in the ground some six or eight feet apart, and a pole
laid upon them, to which by the help of some very rustic hooks
two enormous iron kettles were slung. Under them a fine fire
of smallish split sticks was doing duty, kept in order by a
couple of huge logs which walled it in on the one side and on
the other. It was a dark night, and the fire painted all this
in strong lights and. shadows threw a faint, fading, Aurora-
like light over the snow, beyond the shade of its log
barriers; glimmered by turns upon the paling of the garden
fence, whenever the dark figures that were passing and
repassing between gave it a chance; and invested the cellar-
opening and the outstanding corner of the house with striking
and unwonted dignity, in a light that revealed nothing except
to the imagination. Nothing was more fancifully dignified, or
more quaintly travestied by that light than the figures around
it, busy and flitting about, and showing themselves in every
novel variety of grouping and colouring. There was Earl
Douglass, not a hair different from what he was every day in
reality, but with his dark skin and eyes, and a hat that, like
its master, had concluded to abjure all fashions; and perhaps,
for the same reason, he looked now like any bandit, and now,
in a more pacific view, could pass for nothing less than a
Spanish shepherd at least, with an iron ladle in lieu of
crook. There was Dr. Quackenboss, who had come too,
determined, as Earl said, "to keep his eend up," excessively
bland, and busy, and important; the fire would throw his one-
sidedness of feature into such aspects of gravity or sternness
that Fleda could make nothing of him but a poor clergyman or a
poor schoolmaster alternately. Philetus, who was kept handing
about a bucket of sap, or trudging off for wood, defied all
comparison he was Philetus still; but when Barby came once
or twice and peered into the kettle, her strong features, with
the handkerchief she always wore about her head, were lit up
into a very handsome gipsy. Fleda stood some time unseen in
the shadow of the house to enjoy the sight, and then went
forward on the same principle that a sovereign princess shows
herself to her army, to grace and reward the labours of her
servants. The doctor was profuse in inquiries after her
health, and Earl informed her of the success of the day.
"We've had first-rate weather," he said; "I don't want to
see no better weather for sugar-makin'; it's as good kind o'
weather as you need to have. It friz everythin' up tight in
the night, and it thew in the sun this morning as soon as the
sun was anywhere; the trees couldn't do no better than they
have done. I guess we ha'n't got much this side o' two hundred
gallon I aint sure about it, but that's what I think;
there's nigh two hundred gallon we've fetched down; I'll
qualify to better than a hundred and fifty, or a hundred and
sixty either. We should ha' had more yet if Mr. Skillcorn
hadn't managed to spill over one cask of it I reckon he
wanted it for sass for his chicken."
"Now, Mr. Douglass!" said Philetus, in a comical tone of
deprecation.
"It is an uncommonly fine lot of sugar trees," said the
doctor; "and they stand so on the ground as to give great
felicities to the oxen."
"Now, Fleda," Earl went on, busy all the while with his iron
ladle in dipping the boiling sap from one kettle into the
other "you know how this is fixed when we've done all we've
got to do with it? it must be strained out o' this biler
into a cask or a tub, or somethin' nother anythin' that'll
hold it and stand a day or so; you may strain it through a
cotton cloth, or through a woollen cloth, or through any kind
of a cloth, and let it stand to settle; and then when it's
biled down Barby knows about bilin' down you can tell when
it's comin' to the sugar when the yellow blobbers rises thick
to the top and puffs off; and then it's time to try it in cold
water it's best to be a leetle the right side o' the sugar
and stop afore it's done too much, for the molasses will dreen
off afterwards"
"It must be clarified in the commencement," put in the doctor.
"O' course it must be clarified," said Earl "Barby knows
about clarifyin' that's when you first put it on you had
ought to throw in a teeny drop o' milk fur to clear it
milk's as good as a'most anything or, if you can get it,
calf's blood's better"
"Eggs would be a more preferable ingredient on the present
occasion, I presume," said the doctor. "Miss Ringgan's
delicacy would be a would shrink from a and the
albumen of eggs will answer all the same purpose."
"Well, anyhow you like to fix it," said Earl, "eggs or
calf's blood I wont quarrel with you about the eggs, though
I never heerd o' blue ones afore, 'cept the robin's and
bluebird's and I've heerd say the swamp blackbird lays a
handsome blue egg, but I never happened to see the nest
myself; and there's the chippin' sparrow; but you'd want to
rob all the bird's nests in creation to get enough of 'em, and
they aint here in sugar time, nother; but, anyhow, any eggs
'll do, I s'pose, if you can get 'em or milk 'll do, if you
ha'n't nothin' else and after it is turned out into the
barrel, you just let it stand still a spell, till it begins to
grain and look clean on top"
"May I suggest an improvement?" said the doctor. "Many persons
are of the opinion that if you take and stir it up well from
the bottom for a length of time, it will help the coagulation
of the particles. I believe that is the practice of Mr.
Plumfield and others."
" 'Taint the practice of as good men as him, and as good sugar
bilers besides," said Earl; "though I don't mean to say
nothin' agin' Seth Plumfield nor agin' his sugar, for the both
is as good as you'd need to have; he's a good man and he's a
good farmer there aint no better man in town than Seth
Plumfield, nor no better farmer, nor no better sugar nother;
but I hope there's as good; and I've seen as handsome sugar
that wa'n't stirred as I'd want to see or eat either."
"It would lame a man's arms the worst kind," said Philetus.
Fleda stood listening to the discussion and smiling, when
Hugh, suddenly wheeling about, brought her face to face with
Mr. Olmney.
"I have been sitting some time with Mrs. Rossitur," he said,
"and she rewarded me with permission to come and look at you.
I mean not that I wanted a reward, for I certainly did not
"
"Ah, Mr. Olmney!" said Fleda, laughing, "you are served right.
You see how dangerous it is to meddle with such equivocal
things as compliments. But we are worth looking at, aren't we?
I have been standing here this half hour."
He did not say this time what he thought.
"Pretty, isn't it?" said Fleda. "Stand a little further back,
Mr. Olmney; isn't it quite a wild looking scene, in that
peculiar light, and with the snowy background? Look at
Philetus now, with that bundle of sticks. Hugh, isn't he
exactly like some of the figures in the old pictures of the
martyrdoms, bringing billets to feed the fire? that old
martyrdom of St. Lawrence whose was it Spagnoletto! at
Mrs. Decatur's don't you recollect? It is fine, isn't it,
Mr. Olmney?"
"I am afraid," said he, shaking his head a little, "my eye
wants training. I have not been once in your company, I
believe, without your showing me something I could not see."
"That young lady, Sir," said Dr. Quackenboss, from the far
side of the fire, where he was busy giving it more wood; "that
young lady, Sir, is a patron to her a to all young
ladies."
"A patron!" said Mr. Olmney.
"Passively, not actively, the doctor means," said Fleda,
softly.
"Well, I wont say but she's a good girl," said Mr. Douglass,
in an abstracted manner, busy with his iron ladle: "she means
to be a good girl, she's as clever a girl as you need to
have."
Nobody's gravity stood this, excepting Philetus, in whom the
principle of fun seemed not to be developed.
"Miss Ringgan, Sir," Dr. Quackenboss went on, with a most
benign expression of countenance "Miss Ringgan, Sir, Mr.
Olmney, sets an example to all ladies who a have had
elegant advantages. She gives her patronage to the
agricultural interest in society."
"Not exclusively, I hope?" said Mr. Olmney, smiling, and
making the question with his eye of Fleda. But she did not
meet it.
"You know," she said, rather quickly, and drawing back from
the fire, "I am of an agricultural turn, perforce; in uncle
Rolf's absence, I am going to be a farmer myself."
"So I have heard so Mrs. Rossitur told me; but I fear, pardon
me, you do not look fit to grapple with such a burden of
care."
Hugh sighed, and Fleda's eyes gave Mr. Olmney a hint to be
silent.
"I am not going to grapple with any thing, Sir; I intend to
take things easily."
"I wish I could take an agricultural turn, too," said he,
smiling, "and be of some service to you."
"Oh, I shall have no lack of service," said Fleda, gaily; "I
am not going unprovided into the business. There is my cousin
Seth Plumfield who has engaged himself to be my counsellor and
instructor in general; I could not have a better; and Mr.
Douglass is to be my right hand, I occupying only the quiet
and unassuming post of the will, to convey the orders of the
head to the hand. And for the rest, Sir, there is Philetus!"
Mr. Olmney looked, half laughing, at Mr. Skillcorn, who was at
that moment standing with his hands on his sides, eyeing with
concentrated gravity the movements of Earl Douglass and the
doctor.
"Don't shake your head at him!" said Fleda. "I wish you had
come an hour earlier, Mr. Olmney."
"Why?"
"I was just thinking of coming out here," said Fleda, her eyes
flashing with hidden fun; "and Hugh and I were both standing
in the kitchen, when we heard a tremendous shout from the
woodyard. Don't laugh, or I can't go on. We all ran out
towards the lantern which we saw standing there, and so soon
as we got near we heard Philetus singing out, 'Ho, Miss
Elster! I'm dreadfully on't!' Why he called upon Barby I
don't know, unless from some notion of her general efficiency,
though, to be sure, he was nearer her than the sap-boilers,
and perhaps thought her aid would come quickest. And he was in
a hurry, for the cries came thick, 'Miss Elster! here!
I'm dreadfully on't' "
"I don't understand "
"No," said Fleda, whose amusement seemed to be increased by
the gentleman's want of understanding, "and neither did we
till we came up to him. The silly fellow had been sent up for
more wood, and, splitting a log, he had put his hand in to
keep the cleft, instead of a wedge, and when he took out the
axe the wood pinched him; and he had the fate of Milo before
his eyes, I suppose, and could do nothing but roar. You should
have seen the supreme indignation with which Barby took the
axe and released him, with, 'You're a smart man, Mr.
Skillcorn!' "
"What was the fate of Milo?" said Mr. Olmney, presently..
"Don't you remember the famous wrestler that, in his old age,
trying to break open a tree, found himself not strong enough?
and the wood closing upon his hands held him fast till the
wild beasts came and made an end of him. The figure of our
unfortunate wood-cutter, though, was hardly so dignified as
that of the old athlete in the statue. Dr. Quackenboss, and
Mr. Douglass, you will come in and see us when this
troublesome business is done?"
"It'll be a pretty spell yet," said Earl; "but the doctor, he
can go in, he ha'n't nothin' to do. It don't take more'n half
a dozen men to keep one pot a-bilin'."
"Aint there teu on 'em, Mr. Douglass?" said Philetus.
END OF VOL. I.
Typographical errors:
Chapter 1 : =go in, grandpa?'= silently corrected as =go in,
grandpa?"=
Chapter 2 : =read it sometime= silently corrected as =read it
some time=
Chapter 3 : =Carleton, said at length= silently corrected as
=Carleton said, at length=
Chapter 7 : =ain't tright well= silently corrected as =ain't
right well=
Chapter 7 : =trust in him!= Silently corrected as =trust in him!'=
Chapter 8 : =hand, aunt Miriam said.= silently corrected as
=hand, aunt Miriam said,=
Chapter 9 : =If large possessions= silently corrected as ="If
large possessions=
Chapter 11 : =these places;= silently corrected as =these places,=
Chapter 14 : =were to mine.= silently corrected as =were to
mine."=
Chapter 14 : =said he. smiling= silently corrected as =said he,
smiling=
Chapter 15 : =Memoires de Sully' in French= silently corrected
as =Mémoires de Sully' in French=
Chapter 15 : =Newton' 'what's= silently corrected as =Newton'
what's=
Chapter 15 : =Mem. de Sully= silently corrected as =Mém. de Sully=
Chapter 16 : =that Monsieur Emilie= silently corrected as =that
Monsieur Emile=
Chapter 19 : =other people had.= silently corrected as =other
people had."=
Chapter 19 : =down to Mis' Douglases= silently corrected as =down
to Mis' Douglass's=
Chapter 20 : =hull on't;= silently corrected as =hull on't,=
Chapter 21 : =nowork particular= silently corrected as =no work
particular=
Chapter 21 : =well, god-bye= silently corrected as =well, good-
bye=
Chapter 22 : =came in. folding= silently corrected as =came in,
folding=
Cbapter 22 : =This is me, Ma'am,= said silently corrected as
=This is me, Ma'am,"=
Chapter 22 : =in the army.= silently corrected as =in the army."=
Chapter 23 : =taking the place.= silently corrected as =taking
the place."=
Chapter 23 : =house, a believe= silently corrected as =house, I
believe=
Chapter 25 : =he's took= silently corrected as ="he's took=
Chapter 26 : =as a child!= silently corrected as =as a child!"=
Chapter 26 : =entremêts= silently corrected as =entremets=
Chapter 27 : =tired, Fleda.= silently corrected as =tired,
Fleda."=
Chapter 27 : =on't' = silently corrected as =on't' "=