"No, I don't believe you would," looking down into the brave young face. "But what about your mother, Hughie?""Oh, pshaw! you wouldn't be afraid." Hughie's confidence in his mother's courage was unbounded.
"I don't know about that," she replied; and then turning to Ranald, "How about our friends of the other night?" she said. "Will they not be about?" Hughie had not heard about the wolves.
"Oh, there is no fear of them. We will keep a big fire all night, and besides, we will have our guns and the dogs.""Guns!" cried Mrs. Murray. This was a new terror for her boy.
"I'm afraid I cannot trust Hughie where there are guns. He might--""Indeed, let me catch him touching a gun!" said Ranald, quickly, and from his tone and the look in his face, Mrs. Murray felt sure that Hughie would be safe from self-destruction by the guns.
"Well, well, come away, Hughie, and we will see," said Mrs. Murray;but Hughie hung back sulking, unwilling to move till he had got his mother's promise.
"Come, Hughie. Get Fido ready. We must hurry," said his mother again.
Still Hughie hesitated. Then Ranald turned swiftly on him. "Did ye hear your mother? Come, get out of this." His manner was so fierce that Hughie started immediately for his dog, and without another word of entreaty made ready to go. The mother noted his quick obedience, and smiling at Ranald, said: "I think I might trust him with you for a night or two, Ranald. When do you think you could come for him?""We will finish the tapping to-morrow, and I could come the day after with the jumper," said Ranald, pointing to the stout, home-made sleigh used for gathering the sap and the wood for the fire.
"Oh, I see you have begun tapping," said Mrs. Murray; "and do you do it yourself?""Why, yes, mother; don't you see all those trees?" cried Hughie, pointing to a number of maples that stood behind the shanty.
"Ranald and Don did all those, and made the spiles, too. See!" He caught up a spile from a heap lying near the door. "Ranald made all these.""Why, that's fine, Ranald. How do you make them? I have never seen one made.""Oh, mother!" Hughie's voice was full of pity for her ignorance.
He had seen his first that afternoon.
"And I have never seen the tapping of a tree. I believe I shall learn just now, if Ranald will only show me, from the very beginning."Her eager interest in his work won Ranald from his reserve. "There is not much to see," he said, apologetically. "You just cut a natch in the tree, and drive in the spile, and--""Oh, but wait," she cried. "That's just what I wanted to see. How do you make the spile?""Oh, that is easy," said Ranald. He took up a slightly concave chisel or gouge, and slit a slim slab from off a block of cedar about a foot long.
"This is a spile," he exclaimed. "We drive it into the tree, and the sap runs down into the trough, you see.""No, I don't see," said the minister's wife. She was too thoroughgoing to do things by halves. "How do you drive this into the tree, and how do you get the sap to run down it?""I will show you," he said, and taking with him a gouge and ax, he approached a maple still untapped. "You first make a gash like this." So saying, with two or three blows of his ax, he made a slanting notch in the tree. "And then you make a place for the spile this way." With the back of his ax he drove his gouge into the corner of the notch, and then fitted his spile into the incision so made.
"Ah, now I see. And you put the trough under the drip from the spile. But how do you make the troughs?""I did not make them," said Ranald. "Some of them father made, and some of them belong to the Camerons. But it is easy enough. You just take a thick slab of basswood and hollow it out with the adze."Mrs. Murray was greatly pleased. "I'm very much obliged to you, Ranald," she said, "and I am glad I came down to see your camp.
Now, if you will ask me, I should like to see you make the sugar."Had her request been made before the night of their famous ride, Ranald would have found some polite reason for refusal, but now he was rather surprised to find himself urging her to come to a sugaring-off at the close of the season.
"I shall be delighted to come," cried Mrs. Murray, "and it is very good of you to ask me, and I shall bring my niece, who is coming with Mr. Murray from town to spend some weeks with me."Ranald's face fell, but his Highland courtesy forbade retreat. "If she would care," he said, doubtfully.
"Oh, I am sure she would be very glad! She has never been outside of the city, and I want her to learn all she can of the country and the woods. It is positively painful to see the ignorance of these city children in regard to all living things--beasts and birds and plants. Why, many of them couldn't tell a beech from a basswood.""Oh, mother!" protested Hughie, aghast at such ignorance.
"Yes, indeed, it is dreadful, I assure you," said his mother, smiling. "Why, I know a grown-up woman who didn't know till after she was married the difference between a spruce and a pine.""But you know them all now," said Hughie, a little anxious for his mother's reputation.
"Yes, indeed," said his mother, proudly; "every one, I think, at least when the leaves are out. So I want Maimie to learn all she can."Ranald did not like the idea any too well, but after they had gone his thoughts kept turning to the proposed visit of Mrs. Murray and her niece.
"Maimie," said Ranald to himself. "So that is her name." It had a musical sound, and was different from the names of the girls he knew--Betsy and Kirsty and Jessie and Marget and Jinny. It was finer somehow than these, and seemed to suit better a city girl.
