"The next day proved as perfect a hay-day as could be desired. Abner, Mr. Burns and Sam had an early breakfast, and were off before six o'clock, with their scythes and rakes in the Burns's single wagon, leaving Dave to follow with a two-seated one, bringing the ladies and dinner pails. The boarders from Sam's house proved to be a Mrs. Symonds, a gayly dressed and lively young woman, and her little boy Ambrose, a quiet child eight or nine years old. "'You're sure you'll not be lonely, mamma?' whispered Nelly, giving her mother a parting hug. "'Not a bit lonely, dear; I'm going to write a long letter to cousin Miranda, and take it to the office myself, for I slept better than usual after my walk yesterday.' "This sent Nelly off with a happy face; Wealthy pushed in the last basket, and away they went, at as good speed as Dave could get from old 'Peach who had been a colt at the time of the great impeachment trial in Washington. "Their way lay first through the village, which Dave, half-proud and half-ashamed of his load of ladies, was rather glad to leave behind. Then came a cool, shady mile in the woods, the road slowly ascending between noble maple-trees. "'I don't believe there's a handsomer maple-orchard in the State,' said Dave. 'You jest oughter be here in sap-time, Nelly! You could ride up here on the sled an' help me an' Sam empty the buckets, an' there'll be a big fire under the kettle in the sap-house over there'--pointing to a rough shed with a chimney, near the roadside; 'an' you could drink all the sap, an' eat all the sugar you wanted.' "'Why! Is it here that maple-sugar comes from?' exclaimed Mrs. Symonds, who did not know much about the country; and Dave willingly pointed out the half-healed holes in the bark of the trees they were passing, and explained how the little wooden conductors were fitted in, to lead the sap into the pails and troughs placed below, and how it was afterwards boiled down to sugar, or made into luscious syrup. She and Ambrose at once declared that they would stay in Hickory Corners to see this delightful work, and were much disappointed when Dave with a grin, informed them that it was usually done in March, and that he had once had his ears frozen, from staying too long in the woods. "'But you told me that Sam's sister used to help,' said Nelly reproachfully, as she and Dave here jumped out to walk up hill, leaving the reins to Miss Gage; 'and you said you wished I could be here.' "'Well, an' so I do, an' so Susy did,' retorted the boy; 'but _she_ has sense enough to dress up for cold weather, an' so would you have, but that woman hain't. Look at her now! What sort of shoes are them for goin' up a mounting? an' where'll all them ruffles be, by night?' "It was too true that Mrs. Symonds' flounced and lace-edged muslin was most unfit for the excursion, and her French shoes ill-adapted for walking, but Nelly did not think it polite to criticise her to Dave, so she was glad to change the subject.