"Yes," said Miss Harson; "I did go once, in Vermont, when the family
with whom I was staying took me to see the 'sugaring off.' This is
putting it into the pans and buckets to harden after it has been
sufficiently boiled and clarified; and we younger ones, by way of
amusement, were allowed to make jack-wax."

"Oh!" exclaimed three voices at once; "what is that? Is it good to eat?"

"I thought it particularly good," was the reply, "and I am quite sure
that you would agree with me. To make it, we poured a small quantity of
hot syrup on the snow to cool; and when it was fit to eat, it was just
like wax, instead of being hard like the cakes in moulds. It took only a
few minutes, too, to make it, and it seemed a great deal nicer because
we did it ourselves. I remember that it was the last of March and very
cold, but there were big fires to get warmed at, and we had a
delightful time."

"Were there any Indians there, Miss Harson?" asked little Edith, after
being quiet for some time. Vermont was such a long way off on the map,
besides being up almost at the top, that Indians and bears and all sorts
of wild things seemed to have a right to live there.

"No," said her governess, smiling at the question; "I did not see one,
even at the sugar-camp. Yet the Indians made maple-sugar long before we
knew anything about it, and from them the white people learned how to
do it."

"Well, that's the funniest thing!" exclaimed Malcolm. "I thought that
Indians were always scalping people instead of making maple-sugar."