The boys had used an
inch and a half auger, for in those days people thought that the bigger
the auger hole and the deeper they bored, the more sap would flow.
"Don't hurry, Ad," I said, smiling, as we passed each other. "The snow's
soft! Pails of sap are heavy!"
He grinned, but said nothing. Afterward I saw him slyly slipping
handfuls of those chips into his pocket. What he wanted them for I could
not imagine; and later, after sunset, as we were going home, I asked him
why he had carried away a pocketful of auger chips.
He looked at me shrewdly, but would not reply. Then, after a minute, he
asked me whether I thought that Ben or Willis had seen him pick them up.
"What if they did?" I asked. But I could get nothing further from him.
It was that very evening I think, after we got home, that we saw the
notice the tax collector had put in the county paper announcing the sale
at public auction of the Cranston farm on the following Thursday, for
delinquent taxes. The paper had come that night, and Theodora read the
notice aloud at supper. The announcement briefly described the farm
property, and among other values mentioned five hundred cords of
rock-maple wood ready to cut and go to market.
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