g from the little holes that the sap-suckers had made, they
burst into a shout, and dashed forward, and the fellow with the auger
began to bore away, while the other fellows stood round and told him
how, and wanted to make him let them do it. Up and down the tree there
was a soft murmur from the bees that had found it out before the boys,
and every now and then they wove through the air the straight lines of
their coming and going, and made the fellows wish they could find a
bee-tree. But for the present these were intent upon the sugar-tree, and
kept hurrying up the boy with the auger. When he had bored in deep
enough, they tried to fit a spile to the hole, but it was nearly always
crooked and too big, or else it pointed downward and the water would not
run up through the spile. Then some of them got out their straws, and
began to suck the sap up from the hole through them, and to quarrel and
push, till they agreed to take turn-about, and others got the auger and
bunted for another blackened tree. They never could get their spiles to
work, and the water gathered so slowly in the holes they bored, and some
of the fellows took such long turns, that it was very little fun. They
tried to get some good out of the small holes the sap-suckers had made,
but there were only a few drops in them, mixed with bark and moss. If it
had not been for the woodchoppers, foraging for sugar-water would always
have been a failure; but one of them was pretty sure to come up with his
axe in his hand, and show the boys how to get the water. He would choose
one of the roots near the foot of the tree, and chop a clean, square
hole in it; the sap flew at each stroke of his axe, and it rose so fast
in the well he made that the thirstiest boy could not keep it down, and
three or four boys, with their heads jammed tight together and their
straws plunged into its depths, lay stretched upon their stomachs and
drank their fill at once. When every one was satisfied, or as nearly
satisfied as a boy can ever be, they began to think how they could carry
some of the sugar-water home. But by this time it would be pretty late
in the afternoon; and they would have to put it off till some other day,
when they intended to bring something to dip the water out with; the
buckets they had brought were all too big. Then, if they could get
enough, they meant to boil it down and make sugar-wax. I never knew of
any boys who did so.

The next thing after going for sugar-w