Part 8 (2/2)

”Oh, the mane things!” almost sobbed Mary. ”Why don't they wait for it?”

She stood by a big kettle of boiling syrup at the sugar camp, almost helpless in Jimmy's boots and Dannie's great coat. Jimmy cut and carried wood, and Dannie hauled sap. All the woods were stirred by the smell of the curling smoke and the odor of the boiling sap, fine as the fragrance of flowers. Bright-eyed deer mice peeped at her from under old logs, the chickadees, nuthatches, and jays started an investigating committee to learn if anything interesting to them was occurring. One gayly-dressed little sapsucker hammered a tree near by and scolded vigorously.

”Right you are!” said Mary. ”It's a pity you're not big enough to drive us from the woods, for into one kittle goes enough sap to last you a lifetime.”

The squirrels were sure it was an intrusion, and raced among the branches overhead, barking loud defiance. At night the three rode home on the sled, with the syrup jugs beside them, and Mary's ap.r.o.n was filled with big green rolls of pungent woolly-dog moss.

Jimmy built the fires, Dannie fed the stock, and Mary cooked the supper. When it was over, while the men warmed chilled feet and fingers by the fire, Mary poured some syrup into a kettle, and just as it ”sugared off” she dipped streams of the amber sweetness into cups of water. All of them ate it like big children, and oh, but it was good!

Two days more of the same work ended sugar making, but for the next three days Dannie gathered the rapidly diminis.h.i.+ng sap for the vinegar barrel.

Then there were more hens ready to set, water must be poured hourly into the ash hopper to start the flow of lye for soap making, and the smoke house must be gotten ready to cure the hams and pickled meats, so that they would keep during warm weather. The bluebells were pus.h.i.+ng through the sod in a race with the Easter and star flowers. One morning Mary aroused Jimmy with a pull at his arm.

”Jimmy, Jimmy,” she cried. ”Wake up!”

”Do you mane, wake up, or get up?” asked Jimmy sleepily.

”Both,” cried Mary. ”The larks are here!”

A little later Jimmy shouted from the back door to the barn: ”Dannie, do you hear the larks?”

”Ye bet I do,” answered Dannie. ”Heard ane goin' over in the nicht. How long is it now till the Kingfisher comes?”

”Just a little while,” said Jimmy. ”If only these March storms would let up 'stid of down! He can't come until he can fish, you know. He's got to have crabs and minnies to live on.”

A few days later the green hylas began to pipe in the swamps, the bullfrogs drummed among the pools in the bottom, the doves cooed in the thickets, and the breath of spring was in the nostrils of all creation, for the wind was heavy with the pungent odor of catkin pollen. The spring flowers were two inches high. The peonies and rhubarb were pus.h.i.+ng bright yellow and red cones through the earth. The old gander, leading his flock along the Wabash, had hailed pa.s.sing flocks bound northward until he was hoa.r.s.e; and the Brahma rooster had threshed the yellow dorkin until he took refuge under the pig pen, and dare not stick out his unprotected head.

The doors had stood open at supper time, and Dannie staid up late, mending and oiling the harness. Jimmy sat by cleaning his gun, for to his mortification he had that day missed killing a crow which stole from the ash hopper the egg with which Mary tested the strength of the lye. In a basket behind the kitchen stove fifteen newly hatched yellow chickens, with brown stripes on their backs, were peeping and nestling; and on wing the killdeers cried half the night. At two o'clock in the morning came a tap on the Malone's bedroom window.

”Dannie?” questioned Mary, half startled.

”Tell Jimmy!” cried Dannie's breathless voice outside. ”Tell him the Kingfisher has juist struck the river!”

Jimmy sat straight up in bed.

”Then glory be!” he cried. ”To-morrow the Black Ba.s.s comes home!”

Chapter V

WHEN THE RAINBOW SET ITS ARCH IN THE SKY

”Where did Jimmy go?” asked Mary.

Jimmy had been up in time to feed the chickens and carry in the milk, but he disappeared shortly after breakfast.

Dannie almost blushed as he answered: ”He went to take a peep at the river. It's going down fast. When it gets into its regular channel, sp.a.w.ning will be over and the fish will come back to their old places.

We figure that the Black Ba.s.s will be home to-day.”

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