The first and most important of the necessary
utensils were the huge iron and brass kettles for
boiling. Everything else could be made, but
these must be bought, begged or borrowed. A
maple tree was felled and a log canoe hollowed
out, into which the sap was to be gathered. Little
troughs of basswood and birchen basins were also
made to receive the sweet drops as they trickled
from the tree.

As soon as these labors were accomplished, we all
proceeded to the bark sugar house, which stood in
the midst of a fine grove of maples on the bank of
the Minnesota river. We found this hut partially
filled with the snows of winter and the withered
leaves of the preceding autumn, and it must be
cleared for our use. In the meantime a tent was
pitched outside for a few days' occupancy. The
snow was still deep in the woods, with a solid crust
upon which we could easily walk; for we usually
moved to the sugar house before the sap had act-
ually started, the better to complete our prepara-
tions.

My grandmother worked like a beaver in these
days (or rather like a muskrat, as the Indians say;
for this industrious little animal sometimes collects
as many as six or eight bushels of edible roots for
the winter, only to be robbed of his store by some
of our people). If there was prospect of a good