-the
vats in which they leave the sap to crystallize: if it were a regular
Indian "sucrerie," we'd find those. However, I suspect you may be on the
look-out for a visit from them in spring--_au temps des sucres_, as the
_habitans_ say.'

'And I'm not to assert my superior rights at all?'

'Well, there's certainly sugar enough for both parties during your
natural lives, and the Indians will sheer off when they find the ground
occupied; so I'd advise you to say nothing about it. Now, Wynn, let
your pine fall on that heap of brushwood; 'twill save a lot of trouble
afterwards; if not, you'll have to drag the head thither and chop and
pile the branches, which is extra work you'd as soon avoid, I dare
say.'

After some judicious blows from the more experienced axe, the pine was
good enough to fall just as required.

'Now the trunk must be chopped into lengths of twelve or fourteen feet;'
and Mr. Holt gashed a mark with his axe at such distances, as well as he
could guess. When it was done--

'What's the rate of speed of this work?' asked Robert. 'It seems so slow
as to be almost hopeless; the only consideration is, that one is doing
it all for one's self, and--for those as dear as self,' he could have
added, but refrained.

'About an acre in eight or nine days, according to your expertness,' was
the reply. Robert did a little ciphering in his mind immediately. Three
axes, plus twenty-seven days (minus Sundays), equal to about the chopping
of ten acres and a fraction during the month of December. The calculation
was somewhat reassuring.

'What curious curves there are in this Canadian axe!' he remarked, as he
stood leaning on the handle and looking down. 'It differs essentially
from the common woodman's axe at home.'

'And which the English manufacturers persisted in sending us, and could
not be induced to make on precisely the model required, until we dispensed
with their aid by establishing an edge-tool factory of our own in Galt,
on the Grand River.'

'That was a declaration of independence which must have been very
sensibly felt in Sheffield,' remarked Robert.

They worked hard till dinner, at which period they found Arthur limping
about the shanty.

'I practised those villainous snow-shoes for several hours, till I
walked beautifully; but see what I've got by it,' he said: 'a pain
across the instep as if the bones would split.'

'Oh, just a touch of _mal de raquette_,' observed Sam Holt, rather
unsympathi