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"You're just a mean, mean, red-headed snip!" cried Hughie, in a rage, "and I don't like you one bit." But Maimie was proud of her golden hair, so Hughie's shot fell harmless. "And when will you be going to the sugaring-off, Mistress Murray?" went on Maimie, mimicking Ranald so cleverly that in spite of herself Mrs. Murray smiled. It was his mother's smile that perfected Hughie's fury.
If Katie will wash out the little kettle, while I make a place for it on the fire, we will have a sugaring-off in an hour or two. If you had come to-morrow, Miss Elizabeth, you would have seen us turning off a hundredweight and more." "If there will be time for it," said Mr Fleming doubtfully. "Plenty of time, grandfather.
"Did Mrs. Murray tell you " "Tell me what?" "Did she tell you she would like to see a sugaring-off?" "No; they didn't stop long enough to tell me anything. Hughie shouted at me as they passed." "Well," said Ranald, speaking slowly and with difficulty, "she wanted bad to see the sugar-making, and I asked her to come." "You did, eh? I wonder at you."
Two crotches were erected by its side, and a strong pole was put across from one to the other. Hooks were then made, and the kettles suspended over the fire. The sap was collected once and sometimes twice a day, and when there was a good supply in the casks, the boiling began. Each day's run was finished, if possible, the same night, when the sugaring-off took place.
Of course the story of the sugaring-off had gone the length of the land and had formed the subject of conversation at the church door that morning, where Ranald had to bear a good deal of chaff about the young lady, and her dislike of forfeits, till he was ready to fight if a chance should but offer. With unspeakable rage and confusion, he noticed Hughie's pointing finger.
Bryant's housekeeping, and the "surprise," which was to eke out the entertainment afforded by the sugaring-off proper, had yet to be prepared. The unaccustomed responsibilities of hostess weighed heavily upon Dora Carlson as she traversed the long mile that stretched between the campus and 50 Market Street. It was an odd little party which gathered that night in Mrs. Bryant's dingy kitchen.
It was the most casual remark, but Dora answered it with the naive frankness that was her peculiar charm. "I am giving out my invitations for a sugaring-off," she said. "A sugaring-off!" repeated Miss Egerton gaily. "Now I haven't the faintest idea what that is but it sounds very festive." Dora looked at her questioningly and then at Eleanor.
It was not the first time that Ranald had heard her voice in prayer, but somehow it sounded different in the open air under the trees and in the midst of all the jollity of the sugaring-off.
Then we coursed along the valley, the habitant's eyes still on the trees, and once he stopped to emit a gurgling laugh at a badly hacked trunk, beneath which was a snowed-up sap trough; but I could not divine whether Paul's mirth were over a prospect of sugaring-off in the maple-woods, or at some foolish habitant who had tapped the maple too early.
Slight as it was, Ranald noticed the smile, and turning from her abruptly to Mrs. Murray, said: "We were thinking that Friday would be a good day for the sugaring-off, if that will do you." "Quite well, Ranald," said the minister's wife; "and it is very good of you to have us." She, too, had noted Maimie's smile, and seeing the dark flush on Ranald's cheek, she knew well what it meant.
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