John's Alive; Or, the Bride of a Ghost, and Other Sketches (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1883 Excerpt: ... WHAT HAPPENED IN THE SUGARCAMPS OF THE MAHONING VALLEY. "Maple-sugar what's maple-sugar?" asked my little grandson, whose attention had been attracted by a placard in a shop-window bearing these words. "It is a kind of sugar," said I, "made from the sap of the maple-tree." "Trees, grandpa How can the people grind the trees?" "They don't grind the trees, as we do the cane," I replied; "they tap them." "Tap them " he repeated. "How tap them, grandpa? What for?" "To obtain the sap from which the sugar is made." But this explanation did not satisfy the curiosity which the placard had excited, and, after I had procured for him a few small cakes of the "maple-sugar," which he declared was "as sweet as candy," I was compelled to go into a long explanation of the manner in which maple-sugar is obtained from the sap of the maple-tree, so different from the process by which cane-sugar is made. And this explanation carried me back half a century to the days of my boyhood, and brought up recollections of some of the happiest hours of my life spent in the sugarcamps near my native village in Ohio. How strange that a trivial circumstance should have awakened in my mind the recollection of scenes and occurrences of early childhood, as vividly as if they were of yesterday But so it is. As we advance in life, daily passing events fade from our recollection almost with their occurrence, seemingly crowding each other from our thoughts, while the impressions of our youthful days remain indelibly impressed upon the tablets of our memory. While I write, the scenes, incidents, and pleasures of my experience in the sugar-camps of the Mahoning Valley, more than fifty years ago, are fresher in my recollection than many of the most important events of my life that have occurred wi...