The taxes went unpaid; none of the heirs would pay a cent toward
them; and the fifth year after the old farmer's death the place was
advertised for sale at auction for delinquent taxes.
In March of the fifth year after grandsir Cranston died, Willis and Ben
Murch wrote to one of the Cranston heirs, and got permission to tap the
maples in the wood-lot at the foot of the ledge and to make sugar there.
They tapped two hundred trees, three spiles to the tree, and had a great
run of sap. Addison and I went over one afternoon to see them "boil
down." They had built an "arch" of stones for their kettles up near the
foot of the great ledge, and had a cosy little shed there. Sap was
running well that day; and toward sunset, since they had no team, we
helped them to gather the day's run in pails by hand. It was no easy
task, for there were two feet or more of soft snow on the ground, and
there were as many as three hundred brimming bucketfuls that had to be
carried to the sap holders at the shed.
Several times I thought that Addison was shirking. I noticed that at
nearly every tree he stopped, put down his sap pails, picked up a
handful of the auger chips that lay in the snow at the foot of the tree,
and stood there turning them over with his fingers.
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