Annals of our ancestors; one hundred and fifty years of history in the ...

238
ANNALS OF OUR ANCESTORS
watched eagerly for a cessation; and sure enough, about three
o'clock in the afternoon the storm ceased, but it was turning
cold fast. I had Amos get out the steers and start, but as I
looked out on the great drifts I asked the boy if he thought
he could get through. He told me he would make the venture,
so off he went with the steers and his empty sled.
I took my station at the window to watch results. I
could see the steers were just wallowing in the snow, mounting
a great drift and then going down out of sight. I could hear
Amos' Yankee halloo to the oxen as he cracked his whip,
"Wo-hoosh, Buck and Bright!" Sometimes it was only the
whiplash, sometimes but the little round cap Amos wore, that
I saw above the snowdrifts; but on the brave boy went until
he found Brother Will and Alvah tramping home through the
deep snow. Oh, what a proud return was that of Amos! He
had certainly gained a victory over Winter's battlements.
At last the slow spring touched the north and the sap began
to flow. Down in the grove they tapped the trees with a
three-quarter-inch auger, and then the barrels of sugar water
began to roll into camp. Sometimes, when there was a good
run, they boiled down syrup until late at night. One barrel
of sugar water made a gallon of syrup or eight pounds of sugar.
It was a great and happy day for me when Amos went down and
brought a part of the campers home with a large cake of maple
sugar. Soon I had cranberries and blueberries cooking, nicely
sweetened with that sugar. Many and many a Saturday
night has come and gone since that one which brought my
young husband to spend Sunday with me, but it is all so clear
to me — how we worked till late getting plentiful supplies
ready, for now there was sugar to add some variety to the eatables
we prepared. He went back on Monday well stocked
up. Alvah has written down their fare in camp; one item was
pancakes and maple syrup, and another hot biscuits and maple
syrup, and he adds, "Oh, didn't we fare sumptuously every
day!"
Once during the sugar-making I was invited out to the
camp, and Aunt Eliza Vandervort and her daughters, Jennie
and Mary, went with me. We had a good time and an