nto the woods, his black eyes filled
with a mysterious fire. Suddenly he threw back his head and said, as
if he had forgotten Mrs. Murray's presence, "Yes, some day I will be a
great man. I know it well."

"And good," softly added Mrs. Murray.

He turned and looked at her a moment as if in a dream. Then, recalling
himself, he answered, "I suppose that is the best."

"Yes, it is the best, Ranald," she replied. "No man is great who is not
good. But come now and give me my lesson."

Ranald stepped out into the bush, and from a tree near by he lifted a
trough of sap and emptied it into the big kettle.

"That's the first thing you do with the sap," he said.

"How? Carry every trough to the kettle?"

"Oh, I see," laughed Ranald. "You must have every step."

"Yes, indeed," she replied, with determination.

"Well, here it is."

He seized a bucket, went to another tree, emptied the sap from the
trough into the bucket, and thence into the barrel, and from the barrel
into the big kettle.

"Then from the big kettle into the little one," he said, catching up a
big dipper tied to a long pole, and transferring the boiling sap as he
spoke from one kettle to another.

"But how can you tell when it is ready?" asked Mrs. Murray.

"Only by tasting. When it is very sweet it must go into the little
kettle."

"And then?"

Her eager determination to know all the details delighted him beyond
measure.

"Then you must be very careful indeed, or you will lose all your day's
work, and your sugar besides, for it is very easy to burn."

"But how can you tell when it is ready?"

"Oh, you must just keep tasting every few minutes till you think you
have the syrup, and then for the sugar you must just boil it a little
longer."

"Well," said Mrs. Murray, "when it is ready what do you do?"

"Then," he said, "you must quickly knock the fire from under it, and
pour it into the pans, stirring it till it gets nearly cool."

"And why do you stir it?" she asked.

"Oh, to keep it from getting too hard."

"Now I have learned something I never knew before," said the minister's
wife, delightedly, "and I am very grateful to you. We must help each
other, Ranald."

"Indeed, it is little I can do for you," he said, shyly.

"You do not know how much I am going to ask you to do," she said,
lightly. "Wait and see."

At that moment a series of shrieks rose high above the shouting and
laughter of the games, and Maimie came flying down towar