sions, and it was thus made to last almost the
year around. The smaller candies were reserved
as an occasional treat for the little fellows, and the
sugar was eaten at feasts with wild rice or parched
corn, and also with pounded dried meat. Coffee
and tea, with their substitutes, were all unknown
to us in those days.

Every pursuit has its trials and anxieties. My
grandmother's special tribulations, during the
sugaring season, were the upsetting and gnawing
of holes in her birch-bark pans. The transgres-
sors were the rabbit and squirrel tribes, and we
little boys for once became useful, in shooting
them with our bows and arrows. We hunted all
over the sugar camp, until the little creatures
were fairly driven out of the neighborhood. Oc-
casionally one of my older brothers brought home
a rabbit or two, and then we had a feast.

The sugaring season extended well into April,
and the returning birds made the precincts of our
camp joyful with their songs. I often followed
my older brothers into the woods, although I was
then but four or five years old. Upon one of
these excursions they went so far that I ventured
back alone. When within sight of our hut, I saw
a chipmunk sitting upon a log, and uttering the
sound he makes when he calls to his mate. How
glorious it would be, I thought, if I could shoot