and set aside to harden. Sometimes, when the run was large, the boiling
continued until late at night, and, although there was a good deal of
hard work connected with it, there was also more or less enjoyment,
particularly when some half dozen merry girls dropped in upon you, and
assisted at the closing scene. On these occasions the fun was free and
boisterous. The woods rang with shouts and peals of laughter, and always
ended by our faces and hair being all _stuck up_ with sugar. Then
we would mount the sleigh and leave for the house. But the most
satisfactory part of the whole was to survey the result of the toil in
several hundred weight of sugar, and various vessels filled with rich
molasses.

[Illustration: NIGHT FISHING IN THE CREEK.]

Now the hams and beef had to be got out of the casks, and hung up in the
smoke-house to be smoked. The spring work crowded on rapidly. Ploughing,
fencing, sawing and planting followed in quick succession. All hands
were busy. The younger ones had to drive the cows to pasture in the
morning and bring them up at night. They had also to take a hand at the
old churn, and it was a weary task, as I remember well, to stand for an
hour, perhaps, and drive the dasher up and down through the thick cream.
How often the handle was examined to see if there were any indications
of butter; and what satisfaction there was in getting over with it. As
soon as my legs were long enough I had to follow a team, and drag in
grain--in fact, before, for I was mounted on the back of one of the
horses when my nether limbs were hardly long enough to hold me to my
seat. The implements then in use were very rough. Iron ploughs, with
cast iron mouldboards, shears, &c., were generally used. As compared
with the ploughs of to-day they were clumsy things, but were a great
advance over the old wooden ploughs which had not yet altogether gone