e, either in your kitchen in town, or in the woods out of town, which
is better. One thing is necessary to its complete enjoyment, however:
you must have a "sweet tooth," but as most little people cut that
particular tooth very early, probably you are among the fortunate
number.

"Well, I don't see what we are sitting here for," said Mabel at last.

"Neither do I," said Tattine; "I was only giving you a chance to get a
little breath. You did not seem to have much left."

"No more we had," laughed Rudolph, who was still taking little swallows
and drawing an occasional long breath, as people do when they have been
exercising very vigorously. "But if everything is ready." he added, "let
us start."

"Well, everything is ready," said Tattine quite complacently, as she led
the way to the back piazza, where "everything" was lying in a row.
There was the maple sugar itself, two pounds of it on a plate, two large
kitchen spoons, a china cup, two sheets of brown wrapping-paper, two
or three newspapers, a box of matches, a pail of clear spring water, a
hammer, an ice-pick, and last, and most important of all, a granite-ware
kettle.

"Now if you'll carry these," explained Tattine, "I'll run and tell
Philip to bring the ice," so Rudolph and Mabel "loaded up" and marched
down to the camp, and Tattine disappeared in the direction of the
ice-house. The camp was not far away, and consisted of a cosy little "A"
tent, a hammock hung between two young chestnuts, and a fire-place made
of a circle of stones on the ground, with a crane hanging above it. The
crane was quite an elaborate contrivance, for which Joseph the gardener
was to be thanked.

The long branch on which the pot hung was pivoted, if you know what that
is, on an upright post fastened firmly in the ground, and in such a way
that you could "higher it," as Tattine said, or lower it, or swing it
clear of the fire on either side. At the end of the branch away from the
fire hung a chain, with a few blocks tied into it, for a weight, so
that you lifted the weight with one hand when you wished to change
the position of the branch with the other, and then let it rest on the
ground again at the spot where you wanted the pole to stay. You see, the
great advantage of this was that, when you wished to see how things were
going on inside of the kettle, or to stop its boiling instantly--you
could just swing it away from the fire in no time, and not run the risk
of burning face or han