magnitude that would suit your magnificent conceptions."

You may laugh, cousin Elizabeth-you may laugh, madam," retorted Richard, turning himself so much in his saddle as to face the party, and making extremely dignified gestures with his whip; "but I appeal to common sense, good sense, or, what is of more importance than either, to the sense of taste, which is one of the five natural senses, whether a big loaf of sugar is not likely to contain a better illustration of a proposition than such a lump as one of your Dutch women puts under her tongue when she drinks her tea. There are two ways of doing every thing; the right way, and the wrong way. You make sugar now, I will admit, and you may, possibly, make loaf-sugar; but I take the question to be, whether you make the best possible sugar, and into the best possible loaves."

"Thou art very right, Richard," observed Marmaduke, with a gravity in his air, that proved how much he was interested in the subject. "It is very true that we manufacture sugar, but the inquiry is quite useful to make, how much? and in what manner? I hope to live to see the day, when farms and plantations shall be devoted to this branch of business. Little is known concerning the properties of the tree itself, the source of all this wealth; how much it may be improved by cultivation, by the use of the hoe and plough."

"Hoe and plough," roared the Sheriff;-"would you set a man hoeing round the root of a maple like this," pointing to one of those noble trees, that occur so frequently in that part of the country." Hoeing trees! are you mad, 'duke? This is next to hunting for coal! Poh! poh! my dear cousin, hear reason, and leave the management of

the sugar-bush to me. Here is Mr. Le Quoi, he has been in the West Indies, and seen sugar made often. Let him give an account of how it is made there, and you will hear the philosophy of the thing.-Well, Monsieur, how is it that you make sugar in the West Indies; any thing in Judge Temple's fashion ?"

The gentleman to whom this query was put was mounted on a small horse, of no very fiery temperament, and was riding with his stirrups so short, as to bring his knees, while the animal rose a smalĺ ascent in the wood-path they were now travelling, into a somewhat hazardous vicinity to his chin. There was no room for gesticulation or grace in the delivery of his reply, for the mountain was steep and slippery; and although the Gaul had an eye of uncommon magnitude on either side of his face, they did not seem to be half competent to forewarn him of the impediments of bushes, twigs, and fallen trees, that were momentarily crossing his path. With one hand employed in averting these dangers, and the other grasping his bridle, to check an untoward speed that his horse was assuming, the native of France responded as follows

"Sucre ! dey do make eet in Martinique : mais -mais eet is not from von tree; eet is from—ah -ah-vat you call-Je voudrois que ces chemins fussent au diable-vat you call-von steeck pour le promenade."

"Cane," said Elizabeth, smiling at the imprecation which the wary Frenchman supposed was understood only by himself.

"Oui, Mam'selle, cane."

"Yes, yes," cried Richard, " cane is the vulgar name for it, but the real term is saccharum officinarum; and what we call the sugar, or hard ma

ple, is acer saccharinum. These are the learned names, Monsieur, and are such as, doubtless, you well understand."

"Is this Greek or Latin, Mr. Edwards?" whispered the heiress to the youth, who was opening a passage for herself and her companions through the bushes" or perhaps it is a still more learned language, for an interpretation of which we must look to you."

The dark eye of the young man glanced towards the maiden, with a keenness bordering on ferocity; but its expression changed, in a moment, to the smiling playfulness of her own face, as he answered

"I shall remember your doubts, Miss Temple, when next I visit my old friend Mohegan, and either his skill, or that of Leather-stocking, shall solve them."

"And are you, then, really ignorant of their language?" asked Elizabeth, with an impetuosity that spoke a lively interest in the reply.

"Not absolutely; but the deep learning of Mr. Jones is more familiar to me, or even the polite masquerade of Monsieur Le Quoi."

"Do you speak French?" said the lady, with a quickness that equalled her former interest.

"It is a common language with the Iroquois, and through the Canadas," he answered, with an equi

vocal smile.

"Ah! but they are Mingoes, and your enemies." "It will be well for me, if I have no worse,' said the youth, dashing ahead with his horse, and thus putting an end to the evasive dialogue.

The discourse, however, was maintained with great vigour by Richard, until they reached an open wood on the summit of the mountain, where the hemlocks and pines totally disappeared, and a

grove of the very trees that formed the subject of debate covered the earth with their tall, straight trunks and spreading branches, in stately pride. The underwood had been entirely removed from this grove, or bush, as in conjunction with the simple arrangements for boiling, it was called, and a wide space of many acres was cleared, which might be likened to the dome of a mighty temple, to which the maples with their stems formed the columns, their tops composing the capitals, and the heavens the arch. A deep and careless incision had been made into each tree, near its root, into which little spouts, formed of the bark of the alder, or of the sumach, were fastened; and a trough, roughly dug out of the linden, or basswood, was lying at the root of each tree, to catch the sap that flowed from this extremely wasteful and inartificial arrangement.

The party paused a moment, on gaining the flat, to breathe their horses, and, as the scene was entirely new to several of their number, to view the manner of collecting the fluid. A fine powerful voice aroused them from their momentary silence, as it rung under the branches of the trees, singing the following words of that inimitable doggrel, whose verses, if extended, would reach from the waters of the Connecticut to the shores of Ontario. The tune was, of course, that familiar air, which, although it is said to have been first applied to his nation in derision, circumstances have since rendered so glorious, that no American ever hears its jingling cadence without feeling a thrill at his heart.

"The Eastern States be full of men,

The Western full of woods, Sir,

The hills be like a cattle pen,

The roads be full of goods, sir!

Then flow away, my sweety sap,
And I will make you boily;
Nor catch a woodman's hasty nap,

For fear you should get roily.

"The maple tree's a precious one,
"Tis fuel, food, and timber;

And when your stiff day's work is done,
Its juice will make you limber.
Then flow away, &c.

"And what's a man without his glass,
His wife without her tea, sir?
But neither cup nor mug will pass,
Without this honey-bee, sir!
Then flow away," &c.

During the execution of this sonorous ditty, Richard kept time with his whip on the mane of his charger, accompanying the gestures with a corresponding movement of his head and body. Towards the close of the song, he was overheard humming the chorus, and at its last repetition, to strike in at "sweety sap," and carry a second through, with a prodigious addition to the "effect" of the noise, if not to that of the harmony.

"Well done us!" roared the Sheriff, on the same key with the tune; "a very good song, Billy Kirby, and very well sung. Where got you the words, lad? is there more of it, and can you furnish me with a copy ?"

The sugar-boiler, who was busy in his "camp," at a short distance from the equestrians, turned his head with great indifference, and surveyed the party, as they approached, with admirable coolness. To each individual, as he or she rode close by him, he gave a nod that was extremely good-natured and affable, but which partook largely of the virtue of equality, for not even to the ladies did he in the least vary his mode of salutation, by touching 2

VOL. II.