THE SUGAR SNOW Little House in the Big Woods Little House On The Prairie By Laura Ingalls Wilder
[Music]
the sugar snow
for days the sun shone and the weather
was
warm there was no frost on the windows
in the mornings
all day the icicles fell one by one from
the eaves with soft smashing and
crackling sounds in the snow banks
beneath
the tree shook their wet black branches
and chunks of snow
fell down when mary and laura pressed
their noses against the cold window pane
they could see the drip of water from
the eaves and the bare branches of the
trees
the snow did not glitter it looked soft
and tired
under the trees it was pitted where the
chunks of snow had fallen
and the banks beside the path were
shrinking and settling
then one day laura saw a patch of bare
ground in the yard
all day it grew bigger and before night
the whole yard was bare mud only the icy
path was left
and the snow banks along the path and
the fence and beside the wood pile
can’t i go out to play ma laura asked
and ma said may laura
may i go out to play she asked
you may tomorrow ma promised
that night laura woke up shivering the
bed
covers felt thin and her nose was icy
cold
mo was tucking another quilt over her
snuggle close to mary
ma said and you’ll get warm
in the morning the house was warm from
the stove
but when laura looked out of the window
she saw that the ground was covered
with soft thick snow all along the
branches of the trees the snow was
piled like feathers and it lay in mounds
along the top of the rail fence
and stood up in great white balls on top
of the gate posts
paw came in shaking the soft snow from
his shoulders and stamping it from his
boots
it’s a sugar snow he said
laura put her tongue quickly to a little
bit of the white snow that lay in a fold
of his sleeve
it was nothing but wet on her tongue
like any snow
she was glad that nobody had seen her
taste it
why is it a sugar snow paw she asked him
but he said he didn’t have time to
explain now he must hurry away
he was going to grandpa’s grandpa lived
far
away in the big woods where the trees
were closer together and larger
laura stood at the window and watched
paw big and swift and strong
walking away over the snow his gun was
on his shoulder
his hatchet and powder horn hung at his
side
and his tall boots made great tracks in
the soft snow
laura watched him till he was out of
sight in the woods
it was late before he came home that
night ma had already lighted the lamp
when he came in
under one arm he carried a large package
and in the other hand was a big covered
wooden bucket
here caroline he said handing the
package in the bucket to ma
and then he put the gun on its hooks
over the door
if i’d met a bear he said i couldn’t
have shot him without dropping my load
then he laughed and if i drop that
bucket and bundle
i wouldn’t have had to shoot him i could
have stood and watched him eat what’s in
them and lick his chops
ma unwrapped the package and there were
two
hard brown cakes each as large as a milk
pan
she uncovered the bucket and it was full
of
dark brown syrup here
laura and mary paul said and he gave
them each
a little round package out of his pocket
they took off the paper wrappings
and each had a little hard brown cake
with
beautifully crinkled edges bite it
said paw and his blue eyes twinkled
each bit off one little crinkle and it
was
sweet it crumbled in their mouths
it was better even than their christmas
candy
maple sugar said paw
supper was ready and laura and mary laid
the little maple sugar cakes beside
their plates while they ate the maple
syrup on their bread
after supper part took them on his knees
as he sat before the fire
and told them about his day at grandpa’s
and the sugar snow
all winter paul said grandpa has been
making wooden buckets and little troughs
he made them of cedar and white ash
for those woods won’t give a bad taste
to the maple syrup
to make the troughs he split out little
sticks as long as my hand
and as big as my two fingers near one
end
grandpa cut the stick half through and
split
one half off this left him a flat stick
with a square piece at one end then with
a bit
he bored a hole lengthwise through the
square part
and with his knife he whittled the wood
till it was only a
thin shell around the round hole the
flat part of the stick he hollowed out
with his knife
till it was a little trough he made
dozens of them and he made ten new
wooden buckets
he had them all ready when the first
warm weather came
and the sep began to move in the trees
then he went into the maple woods and
with the bit
he bored a hole in each maple tree and
he hammered the round end of the little
trough
into the hole and he set a cedar bucket
on the ground
under the flat end the sap you know
is the blood of a tree it comes up from
the roots
when warm weather begins in the spring
and it goes to the very tip of each
branch and twig
to make the green leaves grow well
when the maple sap came to the hole in
the tree it ran
out of the tree down the little trough
and into the bucket
oh didn’t it hurt the poor tree
laura asked no more than it hurts you
when you prick your finger and it bleeds
said paw every day grandpa puts on his
boots
and his warm coat and his fur cap
and he goes out into the snowy woods and
gathers the sap
with a barrel on a sled he drives from
tree to tree
and empties the sap from the buckets
into the barrel
then he hauls it to a big iron kettle
that hangs by a chain from a cross
timber between two trees
he empties the sap into the iron kettle
there’s a big bonfire under the kettle
and the sap
boils and grandpa watches it carefully
the fire must be hot enough to keep the
sap boiling
but not hot enough to make a boil over
every few minutes the sap must be
skimmed
grandpa skims it with a big long-handled
wooden ladle that he made of
basswood when the sap gets too hot
grandpa lifts ladle fulls of it high in
the air
and pours it back slowly this cools the
sap a little
and keeps it from boiling too fast when
the sap is boiled down just enough
he fills the buckets with the syrup
after that
he boils the sap until it grains when he
cools it in a saucer
the instant the sap is graining grandpa
jumps to the fire
and rakes it all out from beneath the
kettle then as fast as he can
he ladles the thick syrup into the milk
pans that are standing ready
in the pans the syrup turns to cakes of
hard brown maple sugar
so that’s why it’s the sugar snow
because grandpa is making sugar
laura asked no pau
said it’s called a sugar snow because a
snow this time of year means that
men can make more sugar you see this
little cold spell
and the snow will hold back the leafing
of the trees
and that makes a longer run of sap when
there’s a long run of sap
it means that grandpa can make enough
maple sugar to last
all the year for coming every day when
he takes his furs to town
he will not need to trade for much store
sugar he will get only a little store
sugar to have on the table when company
comes
grandpa must be glad there’s a sugar
snow laura said
yes pas said he’s very glad he’s going
to sugar off again next monday
and he says we must all come pause blue
eyes twinkled
he’d been saving the best for the last
and he said to ma
hey caroline there’ll be a dance
ma smiled she looked very happy
and she laid down her mending for a
minute oh
charles she said then she went on with
her mending
but she kept on smiling she said
i’ll wear my delaying ma’s delaying
dress was
beautiful it was a dark green with a
little pattern
all over it that looks like ripe
strawberries
a dressmaker had made it in the east
in the place where ma came from when she
married paw
and moved out west to the big woods in
wisconsin
ma had been very fashionable before she
married paw
and a dressmaker had made her clothes
the delane was kept wrapped in paper
and laid away laura and mary had never
seen maul wear it
but she had shown it to them once she
had let them touch the beautiful dark
red buttons that buttoned the box up the
front
and she had shown them how neatly the
whale bones were put in the seams inside
with hundreds of little crisscross
stitches
it showed how important a dance was if
ma was going to wear the beautiful
delaying dress
laura and mary were excited they bounced
up and down on paws knees and asked
questions about the dance until at last
he said
now you girls run along to bed you’ll
know all about the dance when you see it
i have to put a new string on my fiddle
there were sticky fingers and sweet
mouths to be
washed then there were prayers to be
said
by the time laura and mary were snug in
their trundle bed paw
and the fiddle were both singing while
he kept time with his foot on the floor
i’m captain jinx of the horse marines i
feed my horse
on corn and beans and i often go beyond
my means from captain jinx of the horse
marines i’m captain in the army